Voyage unto Infinity
by supertruckin
Summary: The USS Voyager comes face to face with the massive ship that is the UNSC Infinity after Voyager's nearly fatal first test of their slipstream warp drive. Getting home isn't their only issue. They will have to work together in order to unravel the ancient threat that plagues the new galaxy that they find themselves in. Star Trek:Voyager, Mass Effect, and Halo triple crossover
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** Alright, here's the real prologue chapter. Got enough feedback and decided to change things up from my original plan. I hope you guys like what I've got in store for this crossover fanfiction.

As far as timelines go for each universe, it goes like this. Star Trek: Voyager wise, directly after Voyager drops out of slipstream warp after Seven of Nine implements Kim's calculations to force the ship back into normal space during the slipstream warp drive test. That's season 5 episode 6. Halo wise, before the second mission to Requiem. Before spartan ops and after Halo 4 for those who are confused. Mass Effect wise? You'll find out eventually.

**Edit AN:** Since I've noticed that a lot of people read this chapter and then stop right away, I'm going to put the start of the timeline in here. Voyager and the Infinity were shifted into the Mass Effect universe out in the Terminus systems. Way out away from anyone. The date is a number of months before the start of Mass Effect 1. Since I can never find an accurate date for Mass Effect 1, it's just simply the year 2183.

**Chapter 1: Dimensional shift**

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

The UNSC _Infinity_ was currently traveling through slipspace back to the Sol system for a resupply and refit after a successful shakedown mission dealing with Kig-Yar pirates harassing an outer colony. Captain Thomas Lasky stood near the holotable as the bridge crew completed their assigned tasks without fail and with discipline. 'That crash landing on Requiem several months ago sure did a number on the _Infinity_'s ventral side.' He thought sourly to himself. 'Damn psychotic Forerunner and his ancient hatred for humanity.'

His annoyed thoughts were interrupted as a shudder went through the deck. Brushing the slight tremor off as commonplace, as occasional 'eddies' would occur naturally in the slipstream, Captain Lasky went back to observing his bridge crew at work. A much stronger jolt caused the relatively new captain to stumble a few seconds later. Grabbing the sides of the holotable to steady himself, he called out. "Report!"

"Sir! The slipstream in front of the _Infinity_ is unstable! The readings are off the charts!" The sensor officer shouted out his reply.

"Roland?!"

Appearing in front of Captain Lasky on the holotable in his World War II bomber pilots orange avatar, Roland looked a little shaken as he spoke. "Captain, what I'm seeing isn't pretty. I recommend-" He was interrupted as Captain Lasky was nearly thrown off his feet in the next second. He waited until Captain Lasky had steadied himself. "I recommend we immediately drop out of slipspace before we get caught up in the worst of it."

Captain Lasky didn't hesitate as he answered. "Do it."

Roland brought up a keypad in front of him as he typed in some commands. He technically didn't need to as the ships dedicated AI but did so anyways. Everything went dark as the captain was knocked off his feet in the next moment.

**USS **_**Voyager**_

"Captain? I didn't send any corrections to Seven of Nine." Ensign Kim replied over the comm.

Before Captain Kathryn Janeway could reply, Lieutenant Commander Tuvok urgently spoke up. "Captain. The slipstream exit is reopening behind us."

Captain Janeway looked confused for a brief moment before she commanded as she sat back in her captains chair. "Report. What are we dealing with here?"

"The anomaly appears to be both spatial and temporal in origin. I cautiously recommend we move away from the event horizon." Tuvok diligently answered his commanding officer.

"Chakotay, an anomaly has appeared at the slipstreams exit point. We're moving _Voyager_ away to a safe distance." Captain Janeway called out over the comm to the delta flyer.

"Acknowledged, Captain." Chakotay answered as the delta flyer moved to follow _Voyager_ to a safe distance.

The displaced Federation starship moved out to a safe distance of 50,000 km away from the growing spatial distortion. "Mr Tuvok? What can you tell me about the anomaly?" Captain Janeway asked once the ship had gotten far enough away.

"As the anomaly is spatial and temporal in origin, I deduce that it is a dimensional rift into a different spacetime." Tuvok answered in the clinical blank vulcan tone common for his species. "It has been growing steadily since it first appeared. The rate at which has been increasing exponentially as time has passed." The sensor readings he was reading went wild in the next moment as the hole expanded further. "Captain, the anomaly has grown to a size of 2 km in diameter… something is coming through."

The bow of an immense ship started coming out of the rift. Arcs of electricity seemingly jumping all over its surface. Its running lights were flickering randomly before going out entirely.

"That's a big ship…" Ensign Tom Paris commented in awe as the ship that dwarfed _Voyager_ by a large margin made its way out of the rift.

The rift closed behind the massive ship without issue as it seemed to drift powerlessly. "Captain? The ship appears to be in distress." Tuvok spoke up.

"Explain?"

"Its main power is offline, secondary power offline, emergency power is barely functioning. Life support is online but barely functional." Tuvok seemed stunned for a moment before he continued. "Captain? There is English lettering on the unidentified vessel."

"English?!" Captain Janeway exclaimed as she grabbed the edges of her chair and leaned forward. "Report."

"It reads 'UNSC _Infinity_' Captain. I am afraid that I am unfamiliar with such an acronym."

Captain Janeway seemed to be at a loss for the meaning of the acronym as well. "Seven, I want a full scan done on that ship before we make any hasty decisions. Lord forbid they take any moves from us to assist as hostile from a ship of that size without knowing anything about their capabilities."

"Affirmative, Captain." Seven of Nine answered.

"Now then, let's find out how much closer we made it home." Captain Janeway mused to herself.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

What was he doing again? His thoughts were somewhat lucid as his senses were in an utter fog. 'We were on a mission… weren't we? Ah… yes. We had just cleared out some Kig-Yar pirates around the outer colonies on a shakedown run with Roland, eight stridents and two new Anlace frigates. We left two stridents behind for local defense.' Captain Lasky blearily thought as more awareness started to return to him. He became aware of a point of light moving around in his vision in a familiar pattern. Muffled speech started to hit his ears through the incessant ringing that was plaguing his hearing.

"The Captain's coming to." The corpsman said.

"How're his vitals?" Roland asked from the speakers of the holotable.

"No concussion as far as I can tell. Just knocked unconscious from his fall and the event that hit the whole ship."

Captain Lasky sluggishly swiped at the light in his face as he started to sit up. Shaking his head to clear his mind as he looked around the bridge, he called out. "Report!"

"Captain? We're dead in the water for now until we get power back online. I've barely got enough power to run life support as it is. We're blind and have no idea where we are." Roland answered.

"What happened? I thought the _Infinity_'s slipspace drive was supposed to be even more advanced than Covenant drives. What the hell did we hit?"

Roland remained silent for a moment as he used his processing power sparingly. "My best guess Captain is that we hit a ripple in the slipstream. A big one at that. If we had stayed in slipspace any longer we might've lost the _Infinity_."

"Status on getting our systems back online? I don't want us getting caught with our pants down by any loyalist Covenant ships." Captain Lasky stood shakily as the corpsman helped him back to his feet.

"The power systems are running through a full reset. Once secondary power is back online it won't take long to get main power running again." Roland's avatar reappeared on the holotable along with all the lights coming back on after he said that. "Speaking of which, secondary power just came back online."

"Sensors? What's around us?"

"Alright, let's have a look at where we're at." Roland paused a second later as the sensor readings started coming through. "Captain! We've got an unidentified vessel sitting 50,000 km off our starboard side bow."

"Covenant?"

Roland gestured to the side as he brought up a holographic image of an odd looking ship. "Not as far as I can tell Captain. It's only the size of a small frigate from what I can see." Roland made a confused face for a moment as he walked around the holographic image and focused on the oddly shaped saucer section of the small ship. He stopped and pointed to a highlighted section of the top hull. "Captain, that's English."

Captain Lasky looked closer as Roland enlarged the image for him to see for himself. "USS _Voyager_? Insurrectionist?"

Roland shrugged. "You got me Captain. That ship is way too different from any designs I've ever seen before."

Captain Lasky scrutinized the holographic image for several more seconds. "What's it doing?"

"Just sitting there as far as I can tell, Captain." Roland brought up a number of different displays with graphs and readouts of what the ships sensors could see. "Captain, I think they're scanning us. Although it's a method of scanning that I've never heard of. These are some strange readings."

"What's the luminary reading? Are they human?" Captain Lasky asked.

Roland made a 'Huh?' face as he looked at the luminary's readings. "Uh, it's not reading anything on that ship. Not a single trace of anything Forerunner or any humans on that ship."

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

"Seven, what can you tell me about that ship?" Captain Janeway asked.

"It's a warship. The ship is approximately 5.7 km in length. It has hundreds of weapon emplacements across its hull. Mostly projectile based weapons, although there are some laser based ones as well. It has four main magnetic accelerator cannons mounted on its bow. There are also 8 smaller vessels docked within its ventral side." Seven of Nine replied.

"Alright… what about life signs? It has to be a flagship of some kind if it's that large and well armed." Captain Janeway mused to herself at the end.

"Sensors detected approximately 17,000 life signs onboard. Captain, they appear to be human."

"Human? What's the ships current status?" Captain Janeway asked as she scrutinized the blocky ship on the main screen.

"Their secondary power just came back online. Ship systems are starting to return to normal operation." Seven stopped as new sensor readings crossed her station. "Captain, they appear to be scanning us."

Captain Janeway had stood and walked a few steps forward. "Well, better make ourselves and our intentions known at the very least. Hail them."

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky and Roland were both examining what the _Infinity_'s sensors could currently read on the unknown ship in front of them. While they were doing so the rest of the bridge crew were collecting themselves and returning to their stations. "Sir! We're receiving communication from the unknown! It's not in any encryption type that I've seen before!" The communications officer called out.

Captain Lasky turned back to Roland. "Roland?"

"It's both audio and visual, sir."

"Let's not reveal ourselves until we know what we're dealing with here. Bring up the feed on the holotable." Captain Lasky commanded.

Captain Lasky was then greeted with the face of a brown haired human woman wearing what appeared to be a jumpsuit of some kind. "Well, Roland, at least we know that they're human. Are they receiving us?" A nod from Roland. "Open a channel! Audio only!"

"This is Captain Thomas Lasky of the UNSC _Infinity_. Identify yourselves."

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

Captain Janeway turned her head back to Seven of Nine. "Was that a translation?"

"No, Captain. That was standard English."

"At least we don't have to deal with a language barrier at all." Captain Janeway muttered under her breath. "This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship USS _Voyager_. Do you require any assistance?"

"_Federation? Which colonies do you represent?"_

"Let me be more specific. The United Federation of Planets is an organization of numerous planetary sovereignties and species."

"Captain?" Tuvok spoke up from his station. Captain Janeway turned her head to look back. "Astrogation just finished its scans. We are not where we are supposed to be."

"Meaning?"

"Our star maps do not match anything in our current surroundings. We are lost." Tuvok replied emotionlessly.

Captain Janeway blinked a couple times as she processed what was said. She closed her eyes as she thought over her next words. "Captain Lasky? You wouldn't happen to know where we currently are, would you?"

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

"Roland? Where'd we end up?"

"Ok… let's see what we've got here." Roland brought up a star map of what was around them. "Uh… Captain? We're not in Kansas anymore." He put the current map alongside another map. "This is where we should be, Captain." Roland pointed to a familiar map near the Sol system. "This, however, is smack dab in the middle of God knows where we are." Roland threw his hands up in frustration.

"How far off from our route did we get?" Captain Lasky asked as he observed the star map in front of him.

"That's just it, Captain. _None_ of these stars match anything in our maps. Oh… _some_ stars are similar, but a vast majority of them are just flat out off and entirely new." Roland gestured around the map of their surroundings as he highlighted different stars here and there. "Whatever we hit in slipspace… it seriously knocked us off track."

"Roland. What are you getting at here?" Captain Lasky asked seriously.

"Well sir, the only thing I can think of is that we got pushed into a different reality altogether by whatever hit us in slipspace." Roland said with a slightly defeated tone. "I'll have to go over our sensor logs in detail once all systems are back up and running to figure this one out."

"Keep this under wraps for now, Roland. I don't want to cause a panic among the crew before we know what the entire situation is." Captain Lasky ordered as he stood back up from the holotable. "The captain of _Voyager_ seemed to be having a similar problem before her last question to us." He straightened out his uniform before he spoke once more. "Open a channel with audio and visual this time."

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Captain. Do your star maps match anything in our current surroundings?" Captain Lasky queried.

"_Unfortunately, they do not. I can guess from the tone of your question that yours don't as well._" Captain Janeway replied.

Captain Lasky's head dipped slightly before he answered. "We seem to have gotten ourselves into a similar problem then. What was _Voyager_ doing before this happened?"

"_We were testing a new drive core. What we refer to as a slipstream warp drive._" Captain Lasky and Roland both seemed to mumble 'slipstream' at the same time. "_We were experiencing turbulence in the slipstream before we dropped out of warp._"

Captain Lasky looked down to Roland to see him standing there in a thinking pose. "This 'slipstream warp drive' as you call it, are you making a full transition into slipspace?"

"_Full transition? No, Captain. We are essentially wrapping the ship in a subspace bubble and using that to bypass the speed of light._" Captain Janeway looked slightly confused at first.

"Captain? If I can get their sensor data and the calculations that they used I might be able to figure this out." Roland stated.

"Captain Janeway? Our method of FTL is referred to what we call a Shaw-Fujikawa Translight drive, or slipspace drive for short. It opens a wormhole into an extra dimensional space that we call slipstream space. If we can look at your data, we might be able to find out what went wrong for the both of us. Would you be willing to share your sensor data and calculations for your slipstream warp drive?" Captain Lasky questioned.

"_I think we can manage that much. I'll do one better and bring the ensign who designed the drive along with us. If you'll invite us onto your ship, that is._" Captain Janeway offered.

"I think I can live with that. You may bring security along with you as well. I hope you understand that you'll have an armed escort while on my ship, Captain."

"_Understandable, Captain._"

"Roland? Direct our guests to the command flight deck." Captain Lasky ordered.

"Aye aye, sir!" Roland saluted as his avatar winked out.

**USS**_** Voyager**_

**Bridge**

Commander Chakotay and Ensign Kim arrived back onto the bridge mostly through the conversation Captain Janeway was having with Captain Lasky. Once they had finished, Chakotay spoke up. "Captain? I hope you know what you're doing. That ship looks highly militarized."

"The Captain of the _Infinity_ seemed to be a personable person. He has to have incredible discipline for him to be taking our situation like he is." Captain Janeway sighed as she continued. "I see your point though."

"Captain? They've given us a path to a flight deck on the dorsal side of the _Infinity_. They do not appear to have transporter technology onboard their vessel." Seven of Nine reported.

"Understood. Let's take a shuttle over to the _Infinity_. No need to reveal all of our capabilities just yet. Ensign Kim? Bring your sensor data and calculations for our slipstream warp drive along. Mr Tuvok? Assemble a security team to stay with the shuttle once we've boarded the _Infinity_. Captain Lasky seemed trustworthy, but a ship that militarized might have hidden elements within it. I'm not taking any chances with my ship or my crew here." Captain Janeway ordered. "Be ready to beam us back out if any hostilities occur."

"Aye, Captain." Chakotay answered.

**USS **_**Voyager**_** 20 minutes later**

**Shuttle bay**

Boarding one of the other shuttles, as the delta flyer was too important to lose, Captain Janeway and her away team boarded the cramped shuttle. "Tight fit would be an understatement here." Ensign Kim commented as the last security officer boarded.

"Well… I'd rather not scare them by simply materializing inside their ship." Captain Janeway called back.

"An appropriate precaution. Their weapons seem primitive, but their overall technological capability and knowledge are still as of yet unknown to us." Tuvok stated.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Command flight deck**

The command flight deck hanger doors opened to the black of deep space. The blue atmospheric shield shimmering as it held out the vacuum of the void. "There's the shuttle that other ship sent out to us. Huh. It looks like a smaller version of the main ship. Man, they've gotta be nearly piled on top of each other in there in something that small." One of the flight crew commented as the shuttle came into view.

"Makes you wonder how they move people and supplies off that ship quickly." Another crew member added.

"Captain on deck!" A marine guard called out near the flight deck entrance.

Captain Lasky and a squad of Spartan IV's strode into the bay. One of the spartans being Commander Palmer. "You sure about this Captain? We don't know that much about these people or their intentions yet."

"Easy Palmer. We're both stuck in a similar situation here. And Captain Janeway seemed like the type to care deeply about her crew." Captain Lasky calmly spoke as they stopped.

"If they try anything though, all bets are off… Captain." Commander Palmer said.

The small shuttle broke through the blue barrier and spun around before settling itself down onto the deck. The rear door opened to show the decidedly cramped occupants shifting to move out of their claustrophobic space. Four people dressed in yellow colored jumpsuits stepped out with what looked like sidearms strapped to their waists. One was dark skinned, and upon closer inspection had pointed ears. One of them didn't have a sidearm and appeared to be holding a datapad and some kind of device on his hip. And finally Captain Janeway made her way out of the shuttle in her red uniform.

"Welcome aboard the _Infinity_, Captain Janeway. We'll be having our meeting in one of the conference rooms. Right this way." Captain Lasky called out to the crew of _Voyager_.

"Thank you, Captain. You two, stay with the shuttle." Captain Janeway ordered the two security officers with the away team.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Flag Conference room**

The spartan guards remained outside of the room as the _Voyager_ crew along with Captain Lasky and Commander Palmer stepped inside. "Let's start by learning a bit more about each other in this situation. We know very little aside from the fact that we're both human. Would you care to enlighten us of your history?"

"Certainly." Captain Janeway offered as she explained the basics of the United Federation of Planets and their mission in general. Captain Lasky and Commander Palmer remained silent as Captain Janeway explained the history of the Federation and her ships current dilemma.

"So… you've been lost out in deep space for about 5 years now?" A nod of confirmation from Janeway. "75 years just to get back home from your original end point. That's one hell of a journey. I can see why you were willing to test out your new slipstream warp drive so readily. Roland? You ready to see what we've got to work with here?"

"Roland?" Captain Janeway asked.

Before Captain Lasky could respond, Roland appeared on the central holotable in his orange avatar. "Hi! I'm Roland. The _Infinity_'s shipboard AI."

"Is Roland fully self aware?" Captain Janeway asked.

"Yup! Fully self aware, ma'am. So… about those calculations?"

"Fascinating." Tuvok commented.

"You can tell them more about yourself later Roland. Right now, we've got more important things to worry about." Captain Lasky ordered the energetic AI.

The asian looking man wearing the yellow jumpsuit stepped forward. "Uh, how do I send you the data?"

"Ah no worries. Just reach your datapad over here and I'll handle it." Roland spoke up as he reached a hand forward.

"Are our computer systems compatible?" Captain Janeway asked.

"We use quantum computing through data crystal technology. Roland? You sure you can work things out?" Captain Lasky questioned.

"Oh I've got this. No need to worry." Roland reached his hand out towards Ensign Kim.

Shrugging, Ensign Kim reached his datapad over towards Roland's outstretched one. Touching the data pad for a brief couple seconds, Roland pulled his hand back holding a holographic representation of Ensign Kim's datapad. "Alright, let's see what we've got here." Roland started swiping his hand over 'his' datapad with a thoughtful face. His expression slowly started shifting to confusion at first before turning into shock. He looked up to the _Voyager_ crew and gave them a look that a parent would to a child that did something really stupid before he looked back to the pad.

"Is something wrong?" Captain Janeway asked.

Roland simply lifted a hand to signal them to be quiet as he kept looking over the data. He let out an explosive sigh as his arms dropped to his sides and his head and shoulders slumped. He 'tossed' the datapad up in the air as it disappeared and a number of different calculations appeared on the holotable behind him. "Let me guess. You guys kept trying to 'push' your way through the turbulence in the slipstream using on the spot corrections?"

"Yes? Did we do something wrong? I worked on the calculations and the drive core myself. My calculations should have worked." Ensign Kim answered

"I'm surprised that you didn't outright destroy your ship with how fast you were trying to go. What you did was build up a quantum bubble in front of your ship in the slipstream. That was the source of your 'turbulence.' You should've dropped back into normal space the instant it started getting rough in there." Roland was pacing around the holotable as he pointed things out to the _Voyager _crew. "Because you kept trying to get as far as you could, it resulted in that bubble catastrophically bursting right before you dropped out. It sent out a cascade quantum ripple through slipspace that _we_ just so happened to get caught in. It literally shifted our ships into wherever we happen to be right now."

"But… how? I made certain those calculations were correct!" Ensign Kim countered.

Roland's brow furrowed as he looked back at Ensign Kim. "You're new to slipstream space technology. We, however, have been using it for close to 300 years now." Roland groaned out in frustration.

"Easy Roland." Captain Lasky tried to calm the situation down. "I'm sure we can work something out here between our two ships." Captain Lasky shook his head as he thought over the problem they found themselves in. "Captain Janeway? Is it too much to ask for your cooperation in order to get ourselves back to where we belong?"

"It looks like we don't have much of a choice in this situation, Captain." Captain Janeway stated in resignation.

**AN: **Cliffhanger technique, executed. Trek tropes huzzah! If you're familiar with the star trek verse then you know that they love using cascade reactions and such to explain things away. I know I'm bsing my way through some of this, but hey, it's for entertainment purposes people. If anybody wants to collaborate on this and help me to improve it or add in your own story ideas give me a buzz.

**For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** Thank you to all who have faved, followed, and reviewed so far. It's much appreciated. For all those new to my stories, I'm a hard working truck driver. There are times where I won't have much time at all to devote to my writing hobby as there are weeks where I'll work 70 hours a week several weeks in a row. It's part of my job and I don't mind at all. Money is kind of essential and those weeks always rake in the cash. Enough about my working life, let's get back to what you're all here for.

Oops! I misspelled Captain Lasky's name. Got that fixed. Also got Ensign Tom Paris' rank wrong too. Went back and fixed that as he hadn't been demoted yet in the series by that point.

Anyone notice how I had Captain Lasky subtly direct Captain Janeway to reveal valuable information first? He'd be very cautious in a situation like this and could tell that Captain Janeway wouldn't be overly secretive if he kept the situation calm.

**Chapter 2: Setting up shop**

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Flag conference room**

"In that case, Captain, I hope that our partnership is beneficial to both of us and short lived." Captain Lasky held out his hand to Captain Janeway.

"For both our sakes and sanity, I hope so too Captain." Captain Janeway accepted the handshake.

"Roland? Give our guests a rundown of our history until this point." Captain Lasky gave Roland a slight gesture out of view of the _Voyager _crew.

Roland saw it and understood. A basic history minus all the more classified and darker elements. "Aye sir!" Roland swiped his hand and a graphic started playing while he orated.

Some time later, Captain Janeway spoke up. "If these insurrectionists hadn't started their attacks, humanity would've been completely unprepared for this… Covenant… correct?"

"Yes." There was a tone of sadness in Captain Lasky's voice. "Humans killing other humans. And for the worst of reasons at times."

"Using weapons of mass destruction, unprovoked and on civilians no less." Ensign Kim added with disbelief. "Something like that is just unthinkable in our society."

"We hadn't had a major conflict in nearly 400 years. It's sad to say, but the insurrection prepared us for the nightmare that came on its heels." Captain Lasky spoke.

The _Voyager_ crew was solemnly silent as they thought over the terrifying realization that this version of humanity had very nearly gone extinct. And over the lies of delusional fools who thought they would be ascending to godhood over the corpses of an entire galaxy.

"Captain Lasky? If it takes my ship and crew sharing everything about our technology and knowledge with the _Infinity_ in order to get both of our crews home, then so be it. We're both in this mess because of our lack of insight into slipstream space. We both have an obligation to our crews to see them home safely. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive our mistake." Captain Janeway admitted with a heavy heart.

Captain Lasky regarded her for a few seconds. "As long as we can both make it safely back to our own realities, I think myself and my crew can live with a _detour_ like this."

"Then I think it's time we returned to our posts then, Captain." Captain Janeway said as she raised a hand and touched the badge on the front of her uniform. "Chakotay? What's the status of _Voyagers _systems?"

A couple seconds later, a reply came back. "_Captain. Systems are functioning normally. We've got a problem though._"

"Report." She commanded.

"_The nearest star system is 489 light years from our current position, Captain._"

Roland and Captain Lasky shared a slightly confused look. 'That'd only take roughly 8 hours in slipspace for us to reach.' They both thought.

"If I may, Captain?" Captain Lasky interrupted.

"Yes?"

"How fast is your method of FTL?"

Captain Janeway thought over the question for a moment before answering. "We can roughly manage around four to five light years per day at normal cruise warp speeds. More if we push the drive for a short period. It can't sustain faster speeds for too long though."

Roland gave Captain Lasky a look before he spoke up. "Captain? Sorry to say it like this but that is laughably slow compared to our drives."

Captain Janeway seemed a little shocked at first before she composed herself. "How fast are your drives, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Classified. But in our current situation, I'll make an exception. The _Infinity_ can manage roughly 1500 light years per day."

The crew of _Voyager _froze at that information. "1500! If we had a drive like that it would've only taken us just two months to get home!" Ensign Kim muttered to himself in disbelief.

Captain Janeway swayed a moment before she steadied herself. "Captain? You wouldn't just leave us out here in the void, would you?"

"No need to worry, Ma'am." Roland said in a chipper tone. "You can just follow the _Infinity_ into slipspace and ride our wake."

"We'll have two of our frigates follow _Voyager_ to maintain the wake so that there are no chances of something going wrong." Captain Lasky offered.

"Although, I've gotta ask. How good is _Voyager_ at handling gravitational shifts?" Roland asked.

"_Voyager_ is capable of planetary landings. Our hull integrity fields also strengthen the hull against such forces." Captain Janeway answered.

"Status on ship systems coming back online?" Captain Lasky ordered.

"Main power should be back online within the hour, sir!" Roland reported. "The slipspace drive is intact and only needs the capacitors charged."

Captain Lasky nodded. "Well then, Captain, I think our meeting has gone on long enough. Let's get back to our posts. We'll contact you once we're ready to jump."

"Thank you, Captain."

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Command flight deck hanger**

As soon as the doors opened to the cavernous hanger bay, both captains were greeted with an odd sight. "Captain? What are _those_ and what are they attempting to do to my shuttle?" Captain Janeway asked. A number of deck hands were on scene holding back what appeared to be floating jellyfish to the _Voyager _crew.

Captain Lasky seemed to silently laugh to himself before he answered. "I really should've been expecting this." He shook his head at the situation. "Their species name is Huragok. We simply call them engineers." At Captain Janeway's questioning gaze, he continued. "They're docile. They literally live to fix technology and learn about and improve upon anything new they come across."

"Intriguing." Tuvok commented at the odd scene.

"Would you like a demonstration?" Roland asked as he appeared on a holo pedestal nearby.

Captain Janeway watched the scene in front of her with a curious gaze. "How fast are they at learning new things?"

"Oh… _very_ fast. Got anything technology wise that you could hand to one?" Roland said as he made a whistling noise.

One of the Huragok stopped and turned its head to look behind it. It seemed to nod and chirp as it headed over to the ship captains. "Ah… this one's name is Suitably Balanced." Roland provided.

"That's an odd naming convention. Any particular reason behind that?" Captain Janeway queried.

"Huragok are given names that are attributed to how well they float upon creation." Roland answered.

Captain Janeway raised an eyebrow as she looked back to the AI's avatar. "Creation?"

"That's a tricky one to explain there heh heh. It still takes two to make a new Huragok in the end though. The process is also faster when more are involved. The 'children' take on traits of all members who participate." Roland explained. "They're essentially biological supercomputers."

Suitably Balanced was eagerly eyeing every piece of tech the _Voyager_ crew had on hand. "Well, he seems to be getting ancy." Captain Lasky commented. "We generally refer to them as male as being called 'it' doesn't sit well with them."

"Ensign Kim? Hand him your data pad if you would, please." Captain Janeway offered.

Ensign Kim hesitantly held his data pad out to the floating engineer. Suitably Balanced slowly curled its tentacles around the data pad as it gently brought it closer to his face. He rolled the device in his grip and looked at it from several angles with the six eyes on his long narrow head. To the surprise of the _Voyager_ crew, his tentacles split into thousands of cilia like appendages and rapidly disassembled the data pad. Once he had completed, the data pad had been reduced to thousands of individual pieces as he further inspected it. Just as quickly, he reassembled the data pad. He performed the rapid process several more times before he handed it back to the shocked looking ensign.

Laughing a bit at their obvious reaction, Captain Lasky spoke up. "That's generally the reaction everyone has when they see engineers at work for the first time."

Ensign Kim pulled the device he had on his hip out. Once he completed whatever it was that he was doing, he spoke up in a surprised tone. "Captain? Whatever he did to my data pad has had a noticeable effect on its performance."

Suitably Balanced almost appeared to look hungrily at the tricorder in the ensigns hands. "Looks like he's still interested in learning more. Go ahead, Mr Kim." Captain Janeway said.

After Suitably Balanced had performed his feat of engineering once again, the crew of _Voyager_ finally boarded their shuttle and left back to their small ship. "Roland? What's his opinion of their tech?"

Roland and Suitably Balanced were finishing up whistling and gesturing to each other as the captain asked his question. "Their computer tech is roughly equivalent to ours for the most part. Their scanning tech, though, that's a whole different ball game there."

Captain Lasky nodded. "If we play our cards right and be cooperative, we should come out of this whole disaster all the better."

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

It wasn't much longer after Captain Lasky had returned to the bridge that Roland reported that main power had come back online. "Roland? I want the _Infinity _running at its peak for this jump. Make absolutely certain that the slipspace drive has had no adverse effects to its systems caused by our detour."

"Already on it, sir!"

"Prepare to deploy sub vessels one and two!" Captain Lasky called out to his bridge crew.

"Good to go on our end, sir! Charging slipspace capacitors." Roland reported.

Captain Lasky looked down to Roland. "What do our sensors say about the system we're about to head out to?"

"It's a main sequence yellow dwarf roughly comparable to Sol. Several gas giants and other smaller rocky planets. We'll get a better idea once we get there though. The system seems to be relatively young based on the stars output." Roland listed out.

Captain Lasky nodded. "We may have to collect raw materials in order to survive for an extended stay." He stood straight and called out. "Open a channel to _Voyager_!"

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

The crew of _Voyager_ had been patiently waiting and testing ship systems while they waited the short period it took for the _Infinity_ to bring its systems back online. "Captain? That… Huragok, engineers as they called them. What I wouldn't give to have some of them onboard _Voyager_." Ensign Kim said with slight awe.

Captain Janeway laughed to herself as she thought about what they had seen. "Yes. It would certainly make things easier on us, wouldn't it."

"Captain. We're being hailed by the _Infinity_." Seven of Nine reported.

Captain Janeway stood from her seat. "On screen." The image of of Captain Lasky standing straight on his bridge appeared on the main screen. "Captain. I take it the _Infinity_ is finished with preparations?"

"_Yes, Captain. Slipspace jump will commence in two minutes. Follow behind the Infinity at a distance of one km to our aft. Stridents one and two will follow to your port and starboard aft to maintain the slipstream wake. Make certain that any systems that could interfere with slipstream space are disengaged._"

Captain Janeway thought over her options for a few moments. "How long will the… jump… take, Captain?"

"_It will take the Infinity roughly eight hours or less to make the jump._"

"Engineering? How much trouble would it be to shut down the warp core for eight hours?"

"_Eight hours? That would give us the necessary time we need for maintenance and tests on several systems, Captain."_ B'Elanna Torres replied over the ships comms.

"Make it so." Captain Janeway returned her attention back to the main screen. "Do we need to know anything about slipspace in general in order to avoid any mistakes?"

Captain Lasky looked down to Roland. "_Not much, Captain. Other than slipspace being comprised of 11 dimensions and appearing as an empty black void to the human eye, just maintain your following distance with the Infinity using your sublight engines and everything should be fine._"

"Acknowledged. Janeway, out." Captain Janeway replied as she looked to Ensign Paris. "Move _Voyager_ into position, Mr Paris."

"Aye, Captain." Ensign Paris answered as he punched in the appropriate commands.

"The _Infinity _is launching its sub vessels, Captain." Tuvok reported.

"Those are awfully big ships for just being frigates." Ensign Paris muttered to himself.

"Seems like the UNSC does everything bigger." Chakotay commented.

"That's an understatement if the _Infinity_ is anything to go by." Captain Janeway replied. "I want our sensors scanning everything that happens. The UNSC is showing us a new field of physics and I want to learn everything that we can about it."

The sensor stations lit up in a litany of new and exotic readings several seconds later. The crew of _Voyager_ looked on in awe and curiosity as the black portal edged with swirling blue white light opened in front of the _Infinity._ The repulsor engines of the massive ship flared to life and pushed it forward.

"Mr Paris. Follow them in." Captain Janeway ordered.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky leaned over the holotable as he looked over the readings on _Voyager_. "Roland? How's their ship holding up so far?"

Roland looked around himself as he casually looked back to the captain. "Surprisingly well, sir. Despite not being truly armored their ship is holding together very well. Their technology could revolutionize a lot of fields for us, sir. No doubt any ONI agents on board will do everything they can to secure it for study."

Captain Lasky drew in a breath as he thought on that outcome coming true. "Hopefully we won't have to deal with that. I think it's time we inform the crew of what our situation is." He stood up straight as he thought over his next words. "Open a shipwide comm."

"Aye, sir. You're on."

"All hands. This is the Captain speaking. The _Infinity _was caught in an unknown slipspace anomaly several hours ago and forced to drop out of slipspace. The reason for this anomaly was caused by an unknown ship testing out a new drive core. Normally, this wouldn't have been much of an issue to be worried over. However, this anomaly pulled both of our ships into uncharted territory. To put it simply, the _Infinity _is lost. The crew of the other ship have been confirmed to be human, surprisingly. The name of their ship is the USS _Voyager_. I've managed to garner any assistance that they are able to render in getting our ships back home." He paused for a moment to let his words sink in.

"Upon meeting with their captain, I was able to learn that they come from a separate reality altogether. Using star maps from both of our ships confirmed that we have found ourselves in an unknown galaxy similar to but different from our own. I ask that we all stay calm and focused during this trying time. It may take days, months, perhaps even years before we find a solution to get ourselves home." Captain Lasky sighed before taking a breath and sternly speaking once more. "We are the UNSC. Humanities protectors. And as humanity, there is nothing that we can't do or accomplish once we set our sights on a goal. Our fellow humans and families depend on our determination to succeed in getting home. That is all. Captain Lasky, out."

Roland gave Captain Lasky a satisfied nod before his avatar winked out.

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

Captain Janeway sat in her captains chair as she considered the new information that they had learned about their fellow stranded humans. The UNSC's recent history more than explained the excessive militarization of the _Infinity_. "Mr Tuvok? What are your thoughts on the escort that we had aboard the _Infinity_?"

Tuvok thought for a few seconds before answering. "Their armor wasn't simply armor. With how heavy it looked, it has to be powered. The weapons they carried were also of a simple but advanced nature. The UNSC appears to have adopted a utilitarian design methodology that is very robust."

"They also have to have shielding tech as well. That was an atmospheric shield that the shuttle passed through. But, ballistic weaponry though… their particle physics tables and equations must have followed a different path than our own." Ensign Kim added in his own thoughts.

Captain Janeway thought a few moments. "If their slipspace drive tech is as fast and effective as they say it is, then I'll do all that I can to see if they can build one for us."

**Unknown star system**

A swirling black portal opened above the orbital plane of the unknown solar system. Nothing happened at first until the blocky form of the UNSC _Infinity_ made its way out of the void. The much smaller USS _Voyager_ followed behind it along with two Strident heavy frigates.

Upon their entrance back into normal space, both the _Infinity _and _Voyager_ started doing detailed scans on the unknown system. The system was comprised of three gas giants. One of them was absolutely massive at nearly the point of becoming a brown dwarf on its own. The other two were Saturn sized and had a large number of icy moons orbiting them. The rocky planets closest to the star were pok marked with a number of fresh and very large impact craters. Numerous proto planets and dwarf planets orbited the star in ways that would lead to eventual impacts with their neighbors.

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

The bridge crew patiently waited for the results of the system scan. Seven of Nine took particular interest in a small moon that was on the outer edge of the system. Its orbit was far too stable for the apparent age of the system. "Captain? The sensors are getting odd readings on a small planetoid orbiting at the edge of the system. I suggest we perform a more in-depth scan."

"Odd readings?" Captain Janeway said as she turned her head to look back.

"Yes. Its density is far too high for its size."

"Alright… let's see if our friends on the _Infinity_ have noticed this as well. Open a channel to the _Infinity_." Captain Janeway ordered.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky was looking over the readouts of the sensors on the system they found themselves in. "This is good. There are a lot of metal rich asteroids to get raw materials from. The gas giants will be useful for harvesting deuterium for our fusion reactors as well." Captain Lasky sighed. "We may have to break out the _Infinity_'s terraforming equipment to build facilities to produce food and other essential supplies. Our stores won't last forever unless we build a base of operations."

Roland walked across the holotable and looked closely at a small asteroid on the edge of the system. "Huh… that's weird." He muttered. Grabbing the object in question and enlarging it he pointed it out to Captain Lasky. "Sir? This asteroid is way too heavy for its size."

Roland was interrupted as the communications officer called out. "Sir! _Voyager _is hailing us!"

"Well… speak of the devil. I was about to suggest we ask _Voyager_ if they see what we do." Roland spoke up before bringing the feed from _Voyager_ up for Captain Lasky to see.

"Captain Janeway? What can I do for you?" Captain Lasky asked.

"_Our sensors have picked up some odd readings on a planetoid on the outer edges of the system. Have your sensors finished their sweep of the system yet?_"

Roland spoke up at this point. "We've pretty much finished a basic sweep. I'm still working on identifying all of the more promising resource satellites for future use." He brought forth the asteroid in question. "I'm guessing this is the source of your odd readings?"

"_Yes, that is what our sensors picked up on. We're about to do a more in-depth scan of the anomaly. We didn't want to alarm you by suddenly jumping to warp to get closer for the scan._"

"Understood, Captain. Keep us informed. The_ Infinity _will join you shortly once we've finished our own scans of the system." Captain Lasky replied.

"_We'll keep in touch. Voyager, out._"

Captain Lasky and Roland watched the main screen as _Voyager _displayed surprising agility as it started to head towards the odd asteroid. The pylons on the sides of its aft tilted upwards before the blue lines on them glowed brightly as the small ship shot forwards. "Damn… thats an interesting way to achieve FTL." Roland casually said as he looked at the sensor readouts.

"We'll worry about that later. Have Stridents one and two dock with the _Infinity_." Captain Lasky ordered as he looked at the readings on the odd asteroid. "Roland? How long until we can make an in system jump?"

Roland thought for a moment. "Eh, about ten minutes, give or take a couple."

"Make it happen, Roland. If the gut feeling I'm getting on this is right, we might be able to get more intel on this new galaxy we find ourselves in."

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

The Federation starship arrived at the asteroid in question within several minutes of going to warp. "Let's see what we're dealing with here. On screen."

The main screen was then filled with the oblong form of a rocky and icy asteroid that was longer on one axis than the others. Its surface looked relatively young for this star systems age. "Captain. We're getting strange gravimetric readings from the asteroid." Ensign Kim spoke up from his station.

"Seven? What's your assessment?" Captain Janeway ordered.

"Scanning. There is an artificial object buried within the asteroid. The object is intact and merely buried it seems." Seven of Nine answered.

"Is it still active?" Captain Janeway asked.

"Negative. It appears to be dormant and powered down."

"Let's keep our distance for the time being." Captain Janeway said. "Do a scan of the local area for anything artificial in origin. Deep scans just in case anything is buried."

"Captain. The _Infinity_ is hailing us." Tuvok spoke up.

"On screen."

"_Captain Janeway. The Infinity is about to jump to your location. Have you learned anything about the asteroid?_"

"Yes. There's an artificial object buried within it. We'll tell you more once you get here."

"_Very well. Infinity, out._"

Less than ten seconds later a black portal lined with blue white light opened several hundred km away from _Voyager_. "That was fast." Ensign Paris commented.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Once the _Infinity_ had cleared the slipspace rupture, Roland directed all of its sensors on the asteroid in question. He even had the Forerunner luminary scanning it as well just in case. "Whew! Dodged a MAC round on that one! It's not Forerunner at least." Roland gestured to the side as he brought the image up on the holotable. "Whatever it is… it's nearly three times the size of the _Infinity._"

"Let's see if our friends over on _Voyager_ can see anything that we can't. Open a channel." Captain Lasky ordered.

"_Captain Lasky. What can Voyager do for you?"_

"We've run our scans. You were right. Something is buried in that asteroid." Captain Lasky gestured for Roland to bring the scans up for them to see. "It's massive from what our initial scans have told us. Have your sensors detected anything else of note?"

"_The object is dormant and powered down for the time being. It's surprisingly intact for being buried like it is._"

"I thought so too. I've got a bad feeling about this object. Let's keep our distance for now and search the system further for any other clues as to this things purpose." Captain Lasky looked down to Roland. "Roland. Drop several probes to further continue scans on the object. And have them keep their distance for now."

"_Voyager will drop some sensor probes as well. Better to have more eyes than necessary in this kind of situation._"

"Agreed." Captain Lasky sighed. "Next order of business. Resource production. The _Infinity_ has a small hydroponics lab for small scale food production, but that will be hardly sufficient to support our crew. We have the means to build the necessary facilities, it'll just take some time to get it done though."

"_Might I make a suggestion, Captain?_"

"Go ahead." Captain Lasky nodded.

"_Voyager can assist with building these facilities. Since it would be pointless to travel anywhere, we'll offer the Infinity some of our replicator technology._"

"Replicators? I'm at a loss here, Captain."

"_With sufficient power and resources our replicators can produce nearly anything that you could need._"

"Technology like that could revolutionize our factory levels production capacity." Captain Lasky muttered as he looked down to Roland who was deep in thought over _Voyager_'s offer of tech. "I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth on this one. I'll leave the science to the eggheads down in our science bays. I don't need to be getting a headache over this. Captain Janeway? We'll gladly accept your offer of assistance in this situation."

"_Glad to be of assistance, Captain. I suggest we set up our base of operations in a more stable sector of this star system. One of the smaller gas giants has suitable moons for resource harvesting from what our scans have shown us._"

Captain Lasky looked down to Roland as he looked over the map of the system. Roland gave him a silent thumbs up with a smile as he gave his approval. "Very well, Captain. We'll notify you when the _Infinity _is ready to move out. _Infinity_, out."

Once the feed with _Voyager _had cut, Roland brought up the holographic image of the object that was buried within the asteroid. "Sir? This _thing_ is just plain _weird_. There are some crazy gravitational readings coming from this thing. Our sensors are also having trouble even penetrating into it for the most part. It's almost like it's made out of Forerunner materials somehow. Whoever built this thing has to have advanced materials knowledge at least."

Captain Lasky thought over Roland's assessment for a few moments. "We'll worry about the giant tuning fork later. Right now, we've got more important things to worry about."

**AN:** Pretty much just a world building chapter. Hope you guys like the direction this is taking. Just so you guys know, I won't be nerfing or buffing anyone for the most part. They will be at their canon universe capacity. Yes Voyager is overpowered compared to mass effect. Yes Infinity is overpowered in comparison as well. The main balancing factor is numbers. They're alone here. And the galaxy is a very big place. Now to find out where and when they popped into the mass effect universe. Let me know your thoughts on my take on this crossover.

**For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: **There seems to be some confusion regarding a few things so far. Roland kept the reality of how the Spartan II's were created a secret. No need to get the crew of _Voyager_ up in a snuff over something they don't need to know all the details of right off the bat. The Infinity was originally intended to be an evacuation colony ship. So it makes sense that it would have facilities to build and produce anything that it could need out in deep space. Being that it was repurposed to be a military exploration vessel its capacity to support its crew indefinitely would be reduced as well unless it builds facilities to do so. Since there are no hard references as to Infinity's capacity in that respect I'm making assumptions. Also, I forgot to put this in.

Basic disclaimer. I do not own Halo, Star Trek: Voyager, or Mass Effect. All properties herein belong to their respective owners. This is purely for entertainment purposes only.

I don't expect anyone to pay me for doing this nor will I ask anyone to. This is as much for you guys as it is for me. I've already got a job and this is just a hobby.

**Chapter 3: Interruptions of the illicit kind**

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

"Captain? Are you sure about this? Just handing them our replicator technology like this could be bad in the long run." Chakotay voiced his opinion on the subject.

"Well, it's not like we'll be giving them the plans to build our technology with them. They'll be blank slates in terms of designs stored in them." Captain Janeway stated before she continued. "I'll have a team of engineers and some security with them at all times so the _Infinity_'s crew doesn't accidentally blow themselves up trying to understand our tech."

Ensign Kim laughed a bit to himself before he commented. "Well, Captain, they'd more than likely sic their Huragok on the replicators to be honest." He paused as a thought hit him. "I wonder if they could figure out what we did wrong with our slipstream warp drive though…"

Captain Janeway's expression brightened at that. "That… could work out very well. An exchange of tech and some of these Huragok could benefit both of our ships."

"From what our sensors could see of how their slipspace drives function, slipstream warp and their FTL work on similar enough concepts that they could build off of each other." Seven of Nine added.

"First things first, though." Captain Janeway said. "We need to make sure we can all survive for the time being before we move on to the arduous task of working through the science to get all of us home."

The bridge crew nodded and voiced their acceptance of _Voyager_'s next objective.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Heavy ground vehicle deployment hangar**

With some careful diplomacy between the captains of both ships saw _Voyager_ offering to take two of their ships industrial replicators over to _Infinity_'s massive heavy ground vehicle deployment hanger. The idea was to have the two replicators working in tandem to produce fully assembled sections of the food production facility. That would greatly reduce the time needed to assemble and produce the necessary sections before deploying them using the _Infinity_'s fleet of dropships. The faster they could secure their continued survival in this new galaxy the faster they could get to researching their method of getting themselves home.

"Hey look! There's the shuttle that's bringing over that weird replication tech stuff over." The flight tech looked out of the cavernous hanger's open door. "Huh? Wait… are they dragging it behind them with a beam or something?" Indeed, the cargo shuttle was pulling along a large crate with its tractor beam behind it as it was too large to fit inside the shuttle. "Well, ain't that nifty."

The cargo shuttle then silently passed through the atmospheric shield before it gently laid the crate down in the designated section of the bays floor. It was then followed by a second standard shuttle as they both set themselves down on the deck. The shuttle doors opened and out walked a team of four engineers and four security personnel. The engineers immediately got to work unpacking the crate with floating anti-grav sleds that they pulled out of the cargo shuttle. With the help of some Huragok, the starfleet engineers were able to successfully integrate the replicators into the _Infinity_'s power systems.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky was watching the progress of the _Voyager _crew intently. He was careful to have Roland survey all activity in the vicinity of the deployment hanger for any discrepancies. "Well, everything seems to be going well so far. Let's hope the universe doesn't throw any monkey wrenches at us any time soon." Captain Lasky looked over to Roland's avatar. "How's their tech handling our power systems?"

Roland looked over some graphs that he brought up on the holotable for reference. "Seems to be going well so far. Once they get to work actually building things is another story. We'll just have to wait and see, sir." Captain Lasky nodded as he gave the go ahead to start building their source of food production.

**Several days later**

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

The crew of _Voyager_ were busy reinstalling the borrowed replicators back into their cargo bays. While they were busy doing this, the bridge crew were having a discussion about what had been learned so far about the _Infinity_.

"So… Ensign Kim? How did our engineering crew perform onboard the _Infinity_?" Captain Janeway asked her operations officer.

"It went rather well in all honesty. Those Huragok of theirs are scarily efficient at what they do." Ensign Kim answered. "They were very quick to adapt the _Infinity_'s power systems to what our replicators could use. Thankfully… we were able to keep them from going too far and disassembling our replicators for study at least." He silently laughed at the observations the starfleet engineers had made about the Huragoks enthusiasm at getting at their tech. "It was if they were kids drooling at a candy store window to be honest." He shook his head. "Their chief engineer, Dr Glassman I think his name was, he was certainly eccentric and easily excitable from what I was told."

Silently laughing at the imagery, Captain Janeway continued. "The _Infinity_ certainly lives up to its designation as a super carrier." The sight of its massive dropships carrying fifty meter sections of the food production facility crossed her mind. "The speed at which they put the structure together once it was finished points to a high degree of coordination. The automation they put in place is also surprising. The 'dumb' AI as they called it… I think they named it 'meal ticket' ironically."

Ensign Paris snorted at the name. "That's an apt name if I've ever heard one."

"From what our engineers told us, meal ticket was written by the _Infinity_'s AI Roland." Ensign Kim spoke up. "Their AI tech is very advanced as far as I can tell."

"Their utilitarian designs would hint at simplistic technological advancement. However, they are very advanced in other areas." Seven of Nine commented.

"Function over form. Being that survival was their main goal for nearly three decades, it is no surprise that they would forego any notions of aesthetics in their designs." Tuvok voiced his opinion.

"Agreed. Now that food production is handled for the time being, let's get to work on finding out how to get all of us back to our proper homes." Captain Janeway said, ending the conversation for the time being. A chorus of agreements rang out after that.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

_**Infinity **_**science center**

Now that essential food production and resource gathering had commenced for continued operations, both ship captains decided to utilize the _Infinity_'s much larger and far more populated science centers to find out a solution to the situation that they found themselves in.

"I find these facilities to be sufficient for our needs." Seven of Nine commented in her blank and efficient tone.

"Well they better be. The _Infinity_ is the most advanced ship in our fleet. It's not called a military exploration ship for nothing you know." Doctor Henry Glassman replied with a hint of annoyance towards the former Borg drone.

Commander Palmer spoke up at the interaction. "Sorry… he gets like that sometimes." She cracked a smirk as she looked over to Dr Glassman. "I don't have to go around cracking any of your eggheads in order to get you to play nice, now do I?"

Seven of Nine watched the odd interaction with her usual calm. 'Such an odd dynamic.' She mused in her head.

"Hardly. I don't want any of you barbarians stomping around my science bays knocking things off the walls." Dr Glassman shot back. "We're going to be looking into researching reality bending quantum physics here. It's going to be a very sensitive subject, and I'd rather not have something go wrong just because one of your apes weren't looking where they put their feet."

Sarah Palmer seemed to huff a laugh at that. "Noted. Let us know if you need any of my 'barbarians' to move anything heavy around for you then." Commander Palmer turned and left after their interaction had finished.

Dr Glassman grumbled a few silent curses after Commander Palmer had left the vicinity. Looking back up to Seven of Nine, he asked an obvious question. "So *ahem*… what's with all the implants you've got?"

Seven of Nine looked at him blankly as she replied. "I was once a Borg drone. These implants are remnants of the high level of cyberization I underwent. They are the essential parts that are needed for my continued functionality."

"Borg drone?" Dr Glassman muttered under his breath. "Eh, no matter. We've got work to do if we're ever going to be getting back home any time soon." He shrugged off his curiosity of Seven of Nine's former status as a Borg drone. His specialty was in astrophysics and quantum theory, not bioengineering.

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

Later that day, the bridge crew of _Voyager_ were going through their normal routines when the long range sensors picked up something strange. "Captain. Our long range sensors have picked up two unknown objects traveling through realspace at FTL speeds to the star system we are in." Tuvok reported once the readings crossed his terminal.

"Realspace?" Captain Janeway thought on the impossibility of that statement for a moment. "Explain."

"The objects are oddly lacking in mass for their apparent size. There is no subspace field of any kind that we can detect coming from the unknowns." Tuvok gave his assessment.

"How long until we can expect their arrival?"

"They will arrive in the system within two hours time, Captain."

"Alright. Open a channel to the _Infinity_. Let's inform our friends about what we've just noticed." Captain Janeway ordered.

Several moments later had Captain Lasky's calm visage displayed on the main screen. "_Captain Janeway. Has Voyager found something?_"

"We have. Mr Tuvok, bring our sensor feed up for _Infinity_ to see."

Roland's voice came from the screen next as his avatar flared to life on the _Infinity_'s holotable. "_What the…? They're… traveling through realspace at FTL speeds._" His brow scrunched in thought as he directed the _Infinity_'s sensors towards the unknown objects. "_Yet more curve balls thrown at us by this universe._"

"_I thought that going faster than light in realspace was an impossibility, Roland._" Captain Lasky commented.

"_It's supposed to be. Whatever these two ships are doing is reducing their mass somehow._" Roland crossed his arms in thought. "_Alright, it's your show, sir. Fight or flight? We could learn a lot about our surroundings if we play this right._"

Captain Lasky thought over his options at the moment. The size disparity between the unknowns and the _Infinity_ was staggering. "_Let's keep the Infinity hidden for now. We might spook them if they catch sight of a ship that's over ten times their size._"

"I agree. We're experienced in first contact scenarios, so we'll take the chance at meeting them out and away from our base of operations." Captain Janeway explained.

"_We don't want Voyager getting in over its head if things get ugly here. If anything happens, Infinity will be ready to lend any assistance you may need._"

"_Voyager _is more than capable of defending itself if the need arises. Thank you for your concern, though." Captain Janeway nodded in thanks at the gesture of coming to their defense. "We'll meet them halfway out near this systems oort cloud. They'll more than likely stop there in order to avoid any collisions with cosmic debris."

"_Very well, then. Keep us informed. Infinity, out._"

After the main screen went back to a view outside the ship, Captain Janeway spoke up. "Mr Paris. Plot an intercept course with the unknown vessels." She ordered.

"Yes Ma'am."

An hour and a half later, _Voyager_'s sensors were able to discern more about the two incoming unknown vessels. The larger one had a distinct avian bird of prey appearance to it with its wing like structures on its sides. While the other smaller one had more elegant curves reminiscent of a manta ray from Earth with a prominent hole through its central hull.

The main screen was currently displaying what the sensors could currently see. "Mr Tuvok. What's your assessment of the unknowns?" Captain Janeway asked.

Tuvok studied the readouts of his station before he answered. "The larger vessel appears to be a military ship of some kind. It has a distinct spinal cannon of some kind mounted in its dorsal structure. The smaller vessel has one present as well on a much smaller scale. Perhaps it is used in self defense?"

"Well, at least we know they're armed. Has their course changed at all since our arrival?"

"Negative. Their course has remained unchanged."

"Mr Kim. Have we detected any sensor scans from them yet?" Captain Janeway queried.

Ensign Kim shook his head as he looked over his stations readings. "Nothing yet, Ma'am. They might not even have faster than light sensors."

Ensign Paris' brow creased as he thought on that. "That's gotta be suicidal going FTL speeds in realspace without faster than light sensors. They'd be bound to run into something and vaporize themselves eventually."

"Agreed." Chakotay voiced his agreement on that comment. "Why are they coming out to this system? There's nothing here except that buried alien structure."

"We'll be finding out soon enough. Mr Tuvok. Have our shields and weapons ready to power up just in case they turn out to be hostile." Captain Janeway ordered her tactical officer. Her ship has had enough hostile first encounters that started out over nothing to know to always be prepared.

Ten minutes later, the two ships suddenly came to a halt several thousand km away from _Voyager_'s position. Ensign Kim was watching his station for the inevitable sensor scan that was going to come from the unknown ships. "That proves it. I can confirm that they do not have faster than light sensors, Captain."

Twenty seconds later had Tuvok confirming their fears. "Captain. They are powering weapons."

"Raise shields!" Not even five seconds later had the first salvo of mass accelerated shells slamming against _Voyager_'s shields with minimal effect. "Report!"

"Kinetic impact. Hyper velocity, very low yield. Negligible effect on shields." Tuvok answered. "Captain. The _Infinity_ is hailing us."

"Open a channel." Captain Janeway said as she considered the situation her ship now found itself in.

"_Captain! We detected weapons fire from the unknowns. The Infinity can be there in less than thirty seconds if you need us. Do you need assistance?_"

"No, Captain. Thank you for the offer though. It appears that they're firing at us with pea shooters compared to your monsters at the least." Captain Janeway informed the concerned UNSC captain on their situation.

The two ships had split and started to flank the starfleet light exploration cruiser thinking that they'd be avoiding any of the ships firing arcs. Unluckily for them, _Voyager _has a 360 degree firing arc with its phaser arrays. "Mr Tuvok. Attempt to contact them. If there is no response, disable their propulsion and weapons systems." Captain Janeway ordered.

After several failed attempts at contacting the unknown vessels two simultaneous orange red beams shot out towards the fast and oddly nimble ships with pinpoint accuracy. The phaser beams passed through their shielding systems as though they weren't even there, vaporizing critical engine components in seconds. The next two phaser beams equally disabled their mass accelerator cannons with ease. Now that the two ships were essentially drifting with only their maneuvering thrusters left, they started hitting _Voyager_ with their remaining laser weapon systems.

"Captain. They appear to be firing low yield lasers at us now along with what appear to be torpedoes." Tuvok observed the ineffectual impacts upon their shields.

Huffing an unamused laugh, Ensign Paris sarcastically commented. "They shouldn't have fired first. Acts of desperation like this point towards more… illicit… intentions if you ask me."

"Mr Tuvok. Continue to hail them if possible. If there is no response or even an attempt to contact us, continue disabling their weapons." Captain Janeway calmly said. Tuvok then methodically began shooting down the incoming torpedoes and taking out their remaining weapons systems with short pulses of _Voyager_'s phaser arrays after several failed attempts at contact.

"Well, that was certainly anticlimactic for a hostile first encounter." Captain Janeway dryly commented. "Open a channel to _Infinity_."

"_Captain Janeway. I assume that your calm expression is reason to believe that the fight is over?_"

"Yes, Captain. They didn't even try contacting us before initiating hostilities." She shook her head at the situation. "We've disabled their propulsion and weapons for the time being."

"_Understood. The Infinity will be arriving shortly to handle any further actions._"

"_Voyager_ has the situation under control, Captain. We're more than capable of handling things from here." Captain Janeway replied.

"_Roland is well versed in cyber warfare, Captain. I'm sure he'll be able to uncover the reason for their sudden hostility._"

"I won't stop you then. We'll see you soon. Janeway, out."

Fifteen seconds later had the _Infinity_ emerging from a slipspace portal fifteen km above _Voyager_'s relative position.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

"Man! Those were some crazy energy spikes that _Voyager_ put out, sir! They're definitely equipped with directed energy weapons." Roland energetically commented.

Captain Lasky looked over the holographic images of the now disabled ships. "Two different races?" He raised an eyebrow over in Roland's direction as his avatar shrugged. "Captain Janeway was right. They do seem to be fielding pea shooters." He laughed lightly at the apt description. "Our onager macs put out more destructive capacity than what they're equipped with." He shook his head as he got back to business. "Alright Roland. You've got the go ahead to infiltrate and scour their systems for anything we can use. All safety precautions should be taken in the case of counter intrusion attacks."

"Aye, sir! Now then, let's see what kinda secrets these guys are hiding." Roland said as he walked over to the image of the larger vessel. He grabbed the image and rotated it around as he looked for a way into their systems. "Ah ha! Gotcha now!" About ten seconds later had Roland looking back to Captain Lasky with a smirk on his amused face. "Pay dirt! They just so happened to have an encyclopedia of just about everything basic in this galaxy stored in their drives. I've literally got a translation at my finger tips for their languages and… even English somehow?"

Captain Lasky looked confused for a moment. "English? How's that even possible?"

"They call it the 'Codex' surprisingly. And it's telling me that there is a human civilization here in this galaxy too. They call themselves the Systems Alliance, Captain." Roland looked thoughtful as he ran the new information through his systems. He facepalmed a second later as he finished. "Ah jeez. These humans must really be trusting of their neighbors to have Earth's coordinates just there for everyone to see."

"We'll look at the big picture later, Roland. Right now, I need to know why these ships are here and why they shot first." Captain Lasky interrupted Roland's ranting.

Roland stopped as he looked around the info thoughtfully. "In a word, Captain? Pirates. Ooo and slavers too! Even better!" He said in fake enthusiasm.

Captain Lasky's face seemed to darken at the mention of slavers. He recollected himself before he spoke up. "Time to let our friends on _Voyager _know what we found." He stood straight as Roland opened a channel to _Voyager_. "Captain Janeway? We know why they shot first now."

"_Alright, go ahead Captain._"

"They're pirates, Captain. And some of the worst kind as well. Not only do they raid ships, they raid colonies and take slaves as well." Captain Lasky said with contempt.

"They came out to this system to see if they could set up a base hidden away from prying eyes it seems." Roland added as he poured over the information he was pulling from their ships systems. "That's just great… the rest of their pirate cronies know they came out this way too." He looked up to the _Voyager_ crew in the image with an exasperated expression. "So yeah… we should be expecting company if these guys don't show back up at their base sometime in the next week or so."

"_This could be a problem. Our Prime Directive states that we cannot interfere with the laws and culture of other species. However, we also cannot allow them to interfere with our efforts to get back to our own realities either. Allowing ourselves to be captured and our technology studied is also out of the question._"

Captain Lasky mulled over the new information carefully. With the wealth of information that they could gain from these two ships they could accurately come up with a solution to their current situation. "Captain Janeway? The _Infinity_ and her crew are experienced in anti piracy operations. Depending on what we can learn from these ships and their crew, we may be forced to end their operations altogether in order to remain unknown in this galaxy."

Captain Janeway appeared to sigh as she thought over her next words. "_I may not agree with this, but you make a very good point Captain. We don't belong here in this galaxy, and I'd like for us to make the least impact on it as possible. If taking out one small group of pirates is all it takes to keep ourselves hidden from the galaxy at large, then so be it._"

"Understood, Captain. Have the unknowns even tried to contact us?" Captain Lasky asked.

"I think I can answer that one, sir." Roland interjected. "Try using a tight beam laser. That seems to be a common method of short range communication among ships in this galaxy. Their regular method makes use of a technology unique to this universe it seems." Roland then gestured to the side as he held up a cluster of data. "I'll send their universal version of an encyclopedia over so you guys can catch up on what we're dealing with."

**AN:** Gonna cut it here for now. As the boarding actions and combat would make this chapter really long and I'm still thinking about which mercenary or pirate faction these two ships come from. I'm going with the whole element zero thing having them using a unique method of radio comms that our missing ships can't process immediately at the moment. Once they clear out the pirates I've got a special surprise in store that'll shake things up a bit. I hope at least. Otherwise, they'd just stay put as they worked on a way to get home. And that'd be boring. So, read and review. Or don't. It's your choice folks. Have a good one out there.

**Edit AN:** Made an edit to make one ship description a bit more clear as to what it is.

**For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:** Ugh. I don't know why but I always have issues coming up with believable and understandable combat situations in my head for some reason. I can think out the sequence of events just fine but the finer points always give me problems. But when I finally do get things down, they're fairly decent.

Now then. I won't be revealing things too soon and I ask everyone to be patient with the overall plot development. Things will eventually move towards certain directions in due time. I ask that everyone be patient with me and my slow thought process on making things progress. I tend to overthink each scenario in my head and look at it as best as I can before committing to plot lines in general. I'm not going to do anything sensational just for the sake of being dramatic. There are plenty of stories that do that and get themselves stuck in massive plot holes over time. I'll be taking my time in general and making sure things are moving smoothly and in a believable sense overall.

When it comes to unimportant individuals who at least need a name in the short term will be given a randomly generated name. I'm not going to put effort into making up names for races that have wonky names here people. The Mass Effect universe is in its canon story state until things start butterflying from _Voyager_'s and_ Infinity_'s influence. The timeline will be revealed in this chapter finally. I cannot for the life of me find any exact date on the start of the games. Just the damn year. If anyone can enlighten me that would be swell.

**Chapter 4: Batarian shenanigans**

Fotin Sonbelok was NOT having a good day. Half an hour earlier was a different story. It was going pretty damn good in his opinion as he had just finished up with his personal slaves. He had wanted to get his own slave mining operation started off on a good note, not the disaster it now turned out to be.

"I WANT THOSE FUCKING ENGINES BACK ONLINE NOW OR SO HELP ME I WILL FEED YOU TO A FUCKING KROGAN!" Fotin bellowed out in rage at his bridge crew. They were cowering in fear as he had been known to actually do such things to insubordinate crew members before.

"We can't… sir. There's nothing to fix at all. That… beam… they hit us with literally burned them away…" The unfortunate engineer who spoke up suddenly found himself with a new air hole punched through his skull. Courtesy of Fotin who just so happened to find a convenient outlet for his rage.

After all the effort he had put into stealing these two ships from a group of migrant Quarians to bolster his own small fleet, this just had to happen out in a supposedly uninhabited system. "I thought you said that ship didn't have any eezo readings at all!"

His sensor officer shakily spoke up. "I-it doesn't, sir. Its shield system shouldn't be possible without it…"

"I don't want excuses you little shit!" Fotin then directed his ire at the next engineer he set his eyes on. "GET THIS FUCKING SCRAP HEAP MOVING!"

Upon scanning the oddly designed ship earlier and finding no eezo readings coming from it at all, Fotin decided to capture it and sell off its crew and keep the ship. What he didn't expect was for the ship to have shielding and exceptionally powerful energy weapons. Getting stranded all the way out here this far out in the Terminus Systems wasn't his idea of a good day. He had wanted to personally choose where he started his first slave mining operation himself. 'What a wonderful idea that turned out to be.' Fotin thought sourly to himself.

The Quarians he had stolen these ships from were now 'employed' at an abandoned mined out resource satellite that he had converted into a small shipyard. It had ironically also been a former Quarian operation nearly a hundred years ago as well. How nice of them to leave him a perfectly good and well suited hunk of rock for him to use for his purposes. The two ships he had 'acquired' were oddly enough the least in need of major repairs at the moment. So Fotin had opted to use them for his current exploratory endeavour.

The Quarians had just finished up salvaging these two ships from a scrap heap in return for a decade of servitude to the owner who ran the salvage and repair business. They had been on their way back to the migrant fleet when they had been ambushed and outnumbered by Fotin's small fleet of ships. Because they didn't have enough members of their group to go around, they had crewed the two repaired ships with the bare essentials to get them moving. The freighter that they had been using as a home and for travel was unarmed and unable to do anything against such odds.

The Turian cruiser was 153 years old and well past its usefulness to anyone in general despite having a mostly intact structure. Quarian ingenuity, however, scoffed at that notion as they worked tirelessly on it so they could bring it back as a gift to the flotilla. It had been bought and used by an outer colony of the Turian Hierarchy for local defense well past its expiration date. They had eventually sold it to a salvage yard and it had found itself the target of a group of Quarians.

The Asari frigate was even older at nearly 240 years old. It had been the personal ship of an asari matriarch for its entire operational life. Nearly all of its internal components had been removed at one point or another. The Quarians, however, were able to salvage and repair parts here and there to be used as replacements. The ship would be considered a frankenstein of different parts if one were to really look at it. They had somehow managed to get the thing working and spaceworthy once again.

Right now, Fotin only had a few of the suit rats onboard each ship at the moment while the rest of them were servicing and overhauling his ships back at base. The cheap labor they would provide would be a boon to his overall profits as he saw it. The only thing left on his mind now was getting out of the royally screwed situation he now found himself and his ships in.

"SIR!" The sensor officer called out. "There's a… black hole forming above that ship!"

Fotin growled menacingly at his sensor officer. "That had better be a joke you piece of…" Fotin trailed off as the view screen near his captains chair was dominated by a black portal with swirling blue white light encircling it opening above the alien ship. He froze as an absolutely massive ship disgorged itself from the black void. He was caught utterly speechless and slack jawed by the sight of the gargantuan block of grey metal that now occupied his screen.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Roland, for the time being, was busying himself by pouring over the data he had taken from the pirates ship systems. He looked to Captain Lasky with a somewhat confused look on his face. "Uh… sir… the people of this galaxy are pretty damn paranoid when it comes to AI."

"Meaning?" Captain Lasky asked.

"Meaning, there are laws outright banning AI's in all forms. Their development and even the hardware used to run an AI is illegal." Roland's expression then cleared as he took on a smug look. "Coincidentally, they were utterly defenseless against my intrusion. What meager defenses they had were amateurish at best." His shoulders shrugged in mirth. "Honestly, it was like I was up against an infant in the digital sense here. Their computing may be accelerated by their mass effect technology base, but without true quantum computing they're at a disadvantage against us."

"Well, that's one advantage we can count on here." Captain Lasky nodded in satisfaction. "Is there anything else that we need to take into account before we commence with boarding actions?"

Roland then snapped his fingers as several camera feeds popped up on the holotable. "I've got full access to all of their systems, sir." He crossed his arms as he looked from screen to screen. "The majority of aliens on that ship are called Batarians, sir. They've got a few 'Quarians' enslaved as engineers on both of their ships." Roland brought up a camera feed with the Quarians working feverishly under gun point on the ships systems. "Every Quarian is equipped with an environment suit to protect them from infection."

Captain Lasky looked at the screens as he considered his options. "Infection? Are their immune systems weak against pathogens carried by these… Batarians?"

"In general, their immune systems are weak against everything, sir. It's an aftereffect of their species' current dilemma and evolution in all actuality." Roland answered. "I can go over their history if you'd like, sir."

"Later, Roland. Let's focus on clearing out those ships and rescuing any slaves that we can." Captain Lasky ordered as he looked at all the information that Roland had displayed. "Make sure that our boarding teams are carrying portable sterile field generators just in case any of these Quarians are injured in the crossfire. Can't have them getting sick on our account, now can we?"

"Yes sir!" Roland saluted as he kept watch over the camera feeds.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**S-Deck**

Commander Palmer had finished her briefing with Captain Lasky and Roland before heading down to the _Infinity_'s S-Deck. Overall, she wasn't that worried about the coming boarding actions. The two ships only had token security forces on board at the moment since this was just an exploratory mission for them. The only thing that she was worried about were the slaves that were aboard both ships. These Quarians had sickly dispositions overall and would require care if they were going to pull them out of their mess without incident.

She overlooked the gathered fire teams that would be heading over to the larger ship. Now known as a Turian cruiser. The thing was barely even frigate weight by UNSC standards. "Listen up! Pirates have decided to grace us with their _immaculate_ presence and promptly fired on our fellow humans over on _Voyager _upon arriving in system. Because _Voyager_ lacks the forces to do so, it's fallen on us to rid this galaxy of these… Batarian pirates." Commander Palmer then took on a more serious stance. "Not only are they pirates, they're slavers. The worst of the worst. They look down upon all other races as beneath them." She paused for a moment to let that sink in. "Let's show these four eyed freaks how wrong that they are!"

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

Captain Kathryn Janeway currently had a puzzled expression on her face as herself and her bridge crew looked over the data that had been sent to them. One blaring thing that stood out was the date according to the human civilization here. It was 2183 on their calendar. Several other things just didn't add up after everything had be categorized and analyzed. The alien object that they had discovered in system turned out to be a Mass Relay according to the Codex. What stood out the most was that the Mass Relay that they had found had been buried in its current state for far longer than the Protheans had supposedly lived long ago.

"For a galactic government that's supposedly been around for as long as they have, this 'Citadel Council' hasn't advanced very far, have they?" Ensign Paris voiced his opinion on what they had so far reviewed.

Tuvok thought on the logic of that comment as he spoke up. "This mass effect, it pervades nearly every aspect of their society as a whole. Yet, there have not been any significant advances in its overall use in far too long. One would think that technological advances in other fields would have occurred by now."

Ensign Kim was busy looking over the engineering aspect of mass effects technological base overall. "Their ships are granted a high degree of maneuverability due to element zeros mass altering properties. Due to its ease of use and simplistic designs, they haven't seen a need to pursue other methods of space travel." He paused and then thought out loud. "They may use antimatter, but it's highly inefficient in its execution."

Captain Janeway pondered on what they had learned so far. "We may have to search this system for some of this element zero. Its properties could be useful in the long run."

She was then interrupted as Tuvok called out. "Captain, we are being hailed by the _Infinity_."

"On screen."

"_Captain Janeway. We're about to start our boarding actions against the pirates._"

Captain Janeway nodded. "Alright. Are your boarding teams capable of handling this on their own?"

"_Our Spartan fireteams are more than ready to handle these pirates, Captain. The weapons they field shouldn't be much of a threat overall in their low numbers. The only thing we really have to worry about are the slaves that they have onboard their ships. The pirates may end up using them as human shields._"

Captain Janeway was worried about something like that coming up. She then made up her mind on the subject. "Captain? _Voyager_ is equipped with transporter technology. We can beam out the slaves before you start your operation. That way they'll be out of the crossfire and safe."

"_Transporters? As in teleportation?_"

"Yes Captain. The shields their ships are equipped with do not interfere with the process. So we'll make things easier on your Spartans if you'll let us." Captain Janeway offered.

"_The technology your ship has keeps throwing surprises at as at every turn it seems._" Captain Lasky seemed to laugh for a moment. "_Be careful though. They may react poorly to suddenly being teleported onto your ship._" He gestured down to Roland. "_The Quarian slaves have very weak immune systems overall. I'll have Roland link our intel on their systems over to Voyager so you can see what's happening inside their ships._"

"Much appreciated, Captain. Mr Tuvok. Bring up the data _Infinity_ has linked to _Voyager_." Captain Janeway ordered.

The main screen was then filled with numerous camera feeds from both ships. "Ugh, talk about ugly." Ensign Paris commented out loud as he caught sight of one of the Batarians.

"Mr Tuvok. Have a security team and the Doctor join us in cargo bay 2." Captain Janeway then directed her attention back to Captain Lasky. "We'll let you know once we've safely beamed all of their slaves and prisoners on board, Captain."

"_This certainly makes things easier on us, Captain. Thank you. Infinity, out._"

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Cargo Bay 2**

After the assembled security team along with the Doctor had arrived at Cargo Bay 2, Captain Janeway was more than ready to rescue the slaves aboard both ships. "Mr Tuvok? Are all preparations complete?"

Tuvok observed his security team and the room in general. "Yes, Captain. We are ready for their arrival."

"Doctor? Have you looked over the data on the Quarians that we obtained?" Captain Janeway asked.

"I have. Their physiology utilizes a dextro-protein base instead of our own levo-protein base. Their already weak immune systems were further weakened by the sterile environments that they've lived in for the past 300 years. I've taken appropriate measures to be prepared to tend to any wounds or infections that they may have." The Doctor answered.

"Good." Captain Janeway then tapped her comm badge. "Transporter room? Have you located all the slaves aboard both of the pirate ships?"

"_Yes, Captain. We're ready to beam them out on your mark._"

Captain Janeway nodded to herself. "Everyone ready?" A chorus of 'Yes, Captain.' "Energize."

The room was then filled with the standing silhouettes of twenty individuals, along with three more that were laying on the floor. Once the transportation process had finished, all of the standing forms were revealed to be the Quarians. The unfortunate three that were laying on the floor were completely naked. One human woman and two blue skinned Asari. They were covered in bruises and lacerations of varying degrees.

Utter confusion was the first and foremost reaction of all the Quarians. As far as they knew, they had just been working at gunpoint on anything that they could bring back online. Surprised Khelish was all that was heard in Cargo Bay 2.

"Computer. Translate." Captain Janeway ordered.

Once their confusion had run its course, the group of Quarians then took notice of the humans that were gathered at one side of the room they now found themselves in. One of the Quarians stepped forward and seemed to take charge of the group. "Where are we? The last thing we knew we were being forced to work for those bosh'tets on our own stolen ships."

"My name is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship USS _Voyager_. You're aboard my ship now. Are there any injuries or infections that need to be attended to among your group at the moment?" Captain Janeway answered.

"Thankfully, no. We were more useful to them if we were able to work." He seemed to sigh in relief as another female Quarian hugged him from the side. "Our nightmare is finally over."

The Doctor walked forward and started scanning the three naked women on the floor. "Transporter room. I need a site to site transfer to the medical bay." He then looked to Captain Janeway. "They're worse off than they look. They have multiple internal injuries that need immediate attention."

"Understood, Doctor." Captain Janeway then looked back to the Quarians. "Our friends over on the UNSC _Infinity_ are going to clear out your ships of the Batarian Pirates. If you need anything in the meantime, you only need ask." She then walked out of the Cargo Bay as a couple of the security staff stood by to watch over the freed Quarians.

"I don't know how they did this. But, we're safe now." The lead Quarian said to the group around him.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Roland was looking over the readings _Infinity_'s sensors could currently see regarding _Voyager_. "Huh…" He then looked up to Captain Lasky. "I just detected a weird energy spike inside both of those ships, sir. It happened simultaneously. So I assume that that was _Voyager_ beaming out the slaves."

Captain Lasky nodded. "Alright. How are the Batarian pirates handling the situation now that their slaves are gone."

"See for yourself, sir." Roland then gestured to the side as he brought up all the relevant camera feeds.

Captain Lasky raised an eyebrow with a crooked smile as he looked over the chaos that filled the screens. "Let's see how this 'Fotin Sonbelok' likes having the tables turned on him for a change."

"_Voyager _is hailing us, sir." Roland stated.

"Captain Janeway? I imagine the energy spike we detected was your doing?" Captain Lasky queried.

"_Yes Captain. We've successfully beamed all slaves and prisoners aboard and are treating them for injuries._"

"Thank you, Captain. This makes it all the easier on my Spartans to do their jobs without having to worry about collateral damage. We'll do our best to leave the ships as intact as we can. The Quarians deserve to get their ships back at the least." Captain Lasky reassured.

"_Understood, Captain. We'll do what we can on our end for them for the time being._"

Captain Lasky then stood straight as he readied himself for his crews first combat op in this new reality. "Commander Palmer. You have permission to commence boarding ops."

"_Gladly, sir._"

"Roland. Jam their sensors and lock them out of their own systems." Captain Lasky ordered. "Let's give them a friendly UNSC greeting, shall we?"

Roland smiled wickedly as he waved aside the camera feeds. "With pleasure, sir. Beginning operation sucker punch." Captain Lasky gave Roland a somewhat amused look that said 'Really?' "Sorry. Couldn't help the irony of giving the op that name." Roland laughed to himself as Captain Lasky shook his head.

**Stolen Turian cruiser**

**Bridge**

Utter silence. That's what gripped the bridge as the Batarians came to terms with what had just happened. "What do you mean they just _disappeared_?!" Fotin asked with a forced expression on his face.

The officer in charge of managing all of the slaves on board shivered in fear as he started to speak up. "U-um… none of the slaves are in range of our systems anymore. They're not on the ship…"

Fotin growled as he turned around and stomped over to his private quarters. Upon opening the door, he was graced with the distinct sight of an empty bed and a lack of his three personal slaves. He snarled as his rage kept building. He was about to turn around and strangle the nearest fool that was in reach before all of the lights went out. Fotin roared in rage as everything just kept building up against him. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!"

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky watched patiently as the flight of Pelicans and Broadsword interceptors made their way towards the stolen ships. He huffed a laugh as he observed the display of coordination and force approach the disabled ships. "There's no kill like overkill. Right, Roland?"

"You got that right, sir. Why take our chances at all when we're so far from home I say." Roland said as he casually shrugged.

"Commander Palmer. Don't take any unnecessary risks on this op. We don't know if they have any of these 'biotics' on board at the moment." Captain Lasky ordered as he looked over the loadouts all the Spartan fireteams were equipped with. "Capture their leader if you're able to. If not, be sure to give him an appropriate greeting from the UNSC."

"_Understood, sir. We'll teach these freaks a thing or two about respecting humanity._"

"See to it that you do, Palmer." Captain Lasky then directed his attention to Roland. "Roland. Set out the welcoming mat, if you would be so kind."

"Yes Sir!" Roland then snapped his fingers as several of _Infinity_'s outer camera feeds showed the airlocks and cargo hangers of both ships. The doors opened and bodies were sucked out into death's embrace in the cold vacuum of space. "Oops. Guess they shouldn't have been so close to the airlocks." Roland laughed in morbid amusement.

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

The bridge crew of _Voyager _watched the grim fates the unlucky pirates near the airlocks were subjected to. Captain Janeway looked on with a resigned expression. After going over all of the information that Roland had sent over on the pirate crews aboard those ships had made up their minds. This had to be done. These pirates were scum and nothing less. The only good thing that would come of this was that they had saved those enslaved by the Batarians.

They looked on in silent detachment as they all knew what came next for those left aboard. "They all knew something like this might happen in their line of work. Their own poor choices in life led to this gruesome outcome." Captain Janeway commented as she shook her head. "Doctor? How are your new patients doing?"

"_I've stabilized the human woman easily enough. The two Asari women took a little bit longer due to my unfamiliarity with their physiology, but I've managed to stabilize them as well._" The Doctor's reply came through the ships comms. "_I've made a disturbing discovery though._"

"What have you found, Doctor?"

"_They have enslavement chips imbedded in their skulls. No worries though. I will remove them once they've recovered from their injuries sufficiently._"

Captain Janeway sighed as the pirates weren't making things any easier on themselves in the slightest. "As if these pirates couldn't do anything worse, they go ahead and prove me wrong." She looked around at all the expressions of her crew. The looks of anger and shock steeled her resolve. "Once the _Infinity_ has finished clearing out those ships, let's get to work bringing them back into working order. The Quarians the pirates stole them from shouldn't have to suffer any more than they already have."

**Turian cruiser**

**Lower decks**

"BRING DOWN THAT BARRIER!" One of the Batarians yelled out as he fired into the shield that was being projected in front of the apparent armored mech that was marching its way towards his group. The mass accelerated sand grain sized bits of metal did little more than be deflected off to the sides as they tried to breach the hardlight shield. Another one of the mechs looked to be priming a grenade before it tossed the sizeable explosive around the edge of the barrier and right next to the group of Batarians in cover.

"GRENADE!" The shout didn't come soon enough as the grenade designed to take out Covenant energy shields and nanolaminate armor exploded with enough force to knock them all off their feet. The shrapnel breached their kinetic barriers with ease and shredded through their armor. Several of the closer Batarians were lucky enough to have been killed quickly while the others suffered in agony as they realized they had been dismembered by the high explosive.

Fireteam Crimson quickly cleared the room and took out any survivors as they assessed the effectiveness of their gear against this universes weapons and armor. "Their shields are shit compared to what Covenant Elites are equipped with." One member commented.

"The armor is pretty low quality too." Another stated as he grabbed an arm off the floor and squeezed. A screeching sound was heard for a split second before a crack sounded out. The morbid display confirmed what they had reviewed in their mission briefing. The weapons of this universe may have a high degree of potential energy, but they can be deflected without the bullets imparting much of that energy with relative ease with the right shielding and armor.

"Faster isn't always better when it comes to projectiles. A sand grain isn't going to do much if it just punches straight through without expending any of that force on the target." The combat engineer said as he looked over his suits readouts on his hardlight shields performance.

"_Fireteam Crimson. Sitrep._" Commander Palmer called out over the comms.

"We just finished clearing out the lower decks, Commander." Crimson's lead replied.

"_Music to my ears, boys. Proceed to exfil._" Palmer ordered.

"Yes Ma'am."

**Turian cruiser**

**Bridge**

Panic was starting to set in. He had really stepped in it this time with whoever these aliens were. All of his ships systems just wouldn't respond as muffled sounds of combat made their way through the deck. He couldn't even get comms to work to get any kind of update from his ships security. Fotin Sonbelok felt fear. Real fear. This was honestly the first time that something hadn't gone his way in a very long time.

The sounds of combat ended quickly after they had begun. These aliens were either very fast in taking out his crew, or they had fallen against the might of Batarian weapons. He sincerely hoped it was the latter and not the former. To his fear, the sounds of heavy armored footsteps were heard just outside of the bridges sealed doors.

The doors suddenly opened to nothing. The red emergency lights didn't help much in showing the bridge crew anything that was in the connecting hallway. A slight shimmer was moving its way into the room that went unnoticed as the Batarians watched for intruders. All of their attention was forward as the active camouflage cloaked Spartan made his way behind all of the Batarians on the bridge.

"Confirmed. Fotin Sonbelok is standing in the doorway into his private quarters." The cloaked Spartan said over suit comms to Commander Palmer.

"Good. Let's start the show, shall we." Commander Palmer said as she gave the green light to clear the bridge.

The cloaked Spartan moved forward silently and drew his combat knife. Coming up to the rearmost Batarian, he drove his knife into the back of the alien and yanked his chin up and to the side. Quietly setting the body down, he pulled out his silenced M7 smg and took aim. As its bullets were caseless, he didn't have to worry about the empty casings falling on the ground and making noise. Two pfts came from the end of the weapon as he fired on the next unarmored Batarian. The armor piercing semi explosive bullets punched into the Batarians skull and exploded with gruesome results. The resulting splatter startled and terrified the Batarians in the path of the spray.

Utter chaos ensued as the Batarians frantically looked around for their assailant. The next sound they heard was that of a metal canister clattering onto the floor in their midst. A blinding flash and deafening boom stunned the group as the rest of the breach team flooded into the open doorway. It was over in seconds as the disoriented Batarians offered no resistance to the ruthless efficiency the Spartan team afforded them.

"All targets down. All except one." The cloaked Spartan reported over their comms as he pointed to Fotin's personal quarters.

Fotin had ducked back into his room right before the flashbang had gone off. It spared him from getting blinded but the blast still deafened him. "Fuck fuck fuck FUCK!" Fotin shook his head to try to clear his senses. "Did I stumble on a secret special forces training ground or something?!"

His next words died in his throat as a large armored figure uncloaked in front of him holding a weapon pointed squarely into his chest. "I'll never fuckin talk! You'll just have to kill me!" Fotin pulled his pistol up from his side only to have it grabbed in a lightning fast movement and held in an impossibly strong grip. He triggered the omni blade of his omni tool and struck forward only to have another armored figure grab his wrist from the side.

"Neat toy." Commander Palmer said as she looked down at the pirate scum. Fotin growled in as menacing a manner as he could. "Cute. It thinks it can intimidate me." Before Fotin could think to do anything else a quick movement from the Spartan and pain was all he could remember.

**AN: **I think I could've done the combat scenes better in my opinion. Now, before everyone goes and jumps at me saying that my depiction of mass effect weapons is wrong you should understand physics first. Which bioware apparently didn't when they thought up how their weapons would work. There are plenty of discussions out there explaining how they really wouldn't be all that effective in general in the small arms department. But that's not the main issue here. The Quarians didn't really question their situation fully due to shock and being freed. They'll be very curious as to how they were rescued in the next chapter. The pirate base assault comes next chapter and after that, well, you'll find out.

**For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: **I find it harder to write when I'm at home for some reason. Probably because I've got a whole lot more things around to distract me from sitting down and typing things out. It's a lot more peaceful so to speak out on the road in my truck. Not much to do when I'm done for the day at times.

Now then, I know I was jumping around quite a bit with the perspective changes in the last couple chapters and I apologize for any confusion that happened. I was trying to stay true to each respective ships origin for the most part in terms of behavior. I'll be doing my best to keep things like that to a minimum from here on out.

So… next big question. What does everyone think about bringing the Master Chief and Blue Team out from under ONI's shadow in the future? I've kept them out of the story for the time being since I wasn't planning on having them along for the ride. Now that I think about it though, they could be the unseen ally of Shepard and Co on their missions.

Let me know what everyone thinks about that scenario.

**Edit AN:** Adding in a note here since people are getting the wrong impression it seems. Those of you who are lore savvy in the Mass Effect verse should be able to pick up on the discrepancy. It's on purpose and not done out of ignorance. It gets addressed in a later chapter so don't lose hope. It's all part of the overall plot I've got planned out.

Basic Disclaimer. I do not own Halo, Mass Effect, and Star Trek: Voyager. Each property herein belongs to their respective owners.

**Chapter 5: Garbage Disposal and Deepening Bonds**

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

The bridge crew watched the UNSC practice their deadly craft with a sense of awe as the abilities of the Spartans were made apparent on the camera feeds. "Man… I wouldn't want to come across one of those Spartans in a dark alley. I wouldn't stand a chance in hell." Ensign Paris commented.

Chakotay sighed as he thought on that. "None of us would in all honesty. They're very highly trained and well equipped for this kind of scenario."

Captain Janeway nodded at that. "Yes, it seems their previous war has them well prepared for anything that could come their way." She then turned back to look at Tuvok. "Mr Tuvok? What's your assessment of their abilities and gear?"

Tuvok contemplated the question for a few moments. "Their energy shielding is highly effective at blocking projectiles. Their suits also seem to increase their overall strength and reaction times. The Spartans themselves must also have cybernetic augmentations and the like in order for their bodies to be able to endure the stress put on them." He answered in his clinical manner.

"The training programs that they put themselves through have to be far more intense than our own." Chakotay added.

"The Covenant gave them no other choice than to adapt and hope that they could endure." Captain Janeway said as a particular encounter on one camera feed ended in a gruesome manner.

"Oof… nasty." Ensign Paris muttered under his breath while Ensign Kim looked away at the result of the UNSC grenade going off next to the Batarians.

"Mr Tuvok. Status of the pirates on those ships?" Captain Janeway ordered.

"Scanning. The bridge crew of the Turian cruiser are all that remain. The Asari frigate has already been cleared of hostiles." Tuvok replied. "The UNSC has so far not left any survivors in their efforts."

Captain Janeway closed her eyes as she reminded herself that this had to be done. These Batarian pirates deserved no less for all the things that they had done. The data that Roland had stolen from their systems had more than enough incriminating evidence for this universes justice system to be just as harsh.

"That reminds me." Captain Janeway tapped her comm badge. "Doctor? Be sure that when you interact with the Quarians that your status as a hologram is kept a secret. AI's of any kind are illegal in this universe and you would be considered a highly advanced one if you were discovered."

"_Very well, Captain. I'll assume the name of my creator for the time being then._"

Tuvok then took note that the Spartan team assaulting the bridge of the Turian cruiser had finished their task. "Captain. It appears that the UNSC is in the process of returning to their ship with any gear they were able to acquire along with the pirate leader. Zero casualties detected from the UNSC forces."

Captain Janeway nodded as they thought on what should be done next. "Mr Kim. I want you and a team of engineers to head over to those ships and start the process of bringing them back up to operational capacity. See about doing what you can to improve on their ships systems while keeping them within the Quarians capability to maintain."

"Aye, Captain. That's the least we can do considering the ordeal they've been forced to endure." Ensign Kim replied.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky was satisfied with his crews performance so far in this new reality. The Batarians had stood no chance of putting up much of a fight with their limited forces. "Commander Palmer. What's your opinion on our techs effectiveness against the pirates?"

Commander Sarah Palmer had just gotten to the bridge to personally give Captain Lasky her after action report. "Their gear overall is far too focused on this mass effect tech base that they use. Sure, that tech could be far more effective if they used it in other ways, but it falls flat on its own against ours as it is now." She handed over her data pad. "It just lacks any real punch in the end when it comes to their small arms. A lower fire rate with larger rounds would be more effective than their current higher rate of fire."

"Did you encounter any of these 'biotics' that were mentioned in the Codex?"

"No, sir. It was just the Batarian pirates crewing those ships after _Voyager_ transported all of their slaves out." Palmer answered.

Captain Lasky nodded as he thought on what to do next. He was interrupted in his thought process as someone spoke up behind him. "Captain Lasky." He turned around and took in the sight of a man dressed in an all black uniform. He had dirty blonde hair with cold looking brown eyes and a stern but blank expression on his face. "I am Lieutenant Commander Daniels. I am the lead ONI operative on board the _Infinity_ at this time. If you'll allow me to, I'll handle the interrogation of our… Batarian guest." His speech was essentially deadpan and cold overall.

Captain Lasky looked at the ONI operative with a deadpan look for a few moments before he spoke up. "I was wondering when you'd show yourself." He sighed. "By all means. Have at the pirate bastard. Experiment on him for all I care. His list of offenses against the innocent deserve no better treatment than what he has afforded on them."

The ghost of a cruel and sadistic smile spread its way across Lieutenant Commander Daniels face before it dropped back to his blank expression. "Thank you, Captain. I'll see to it our guest gets the best treatment available to him." He turned and promptly left the bridge.

Captain Lasky sighed. "Spooks… I'll never get used to them." He then looked back to Palmer. "Commander Palmer. See to it our engineers find out everything that they can about their weapons. If they find anything useful, have the science bays see if they can improve our own weapons if they're able to."

"Yes, Captain. I'll see about adding what we've found out so far to our wargames scenarios. Best to be as prepared as we can be." Palmer replied.

"Good. Dismissed." Captain Lasky said as he went back to looking over Commander Palmer's after action report.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Interrogation room**

Fotin Sonbelok slowly came to. Confusion clouded his thoughts as nothing but darkness and silence greeted his senses. He grunted in pain as he attempted to move his limbs. To his shock and growing horror, he had been stripped and very securely strapped into a chair. Almost to the point of cutting off his circulation at that as well. Before he could open his mouth to speak, the black bag that had been blocking his vision was roughly pulled off his head. He opened his eyes and immediately shut them as the painfully bright white light hit his retinas.

"Good morning, Fotin Sonbelok. Did you sleep well?" The blank voice of a human male hit his ears as his vision started to adjust to the light.

He focused in front of him where the sound of the voice had come from. The form of Lieutenant Commander Daniels stepped forward and into the light. Fotin glared at the human in front of him. "What do you want, Human?"

Lieutenant Commander Daniels stared at the Batarian in front of him. "Not much, really. Just all you can tell me about your operations."

Fotin barked a laugh at that. "As if I'll tell you Humans in the Systems Alliance anything at all!" He spat to the side.

Silence and a blank face stared back at Fotin. Several moments passed as the ONI Lieutenant Commander remained composed. "Oh… we're not from the Systems Alliance." Lieutenant Commander Daniels tilted his head to the right. "We're something far more… _battle tested_." The gesture wasn't lost on either of the rooms occupants.

Fotin snarled at the gesture. "Go fuck yourself, _Human_."

Lieutenant Commander Daniels looked behind Fotin for a split second. Armored gauntlets then grabbed and held Fotin's head securely in place.

"GET OFF ME YOU-HURGK…" Fotin yelled before his mouth was held painfully open by the same pair of gauntlets. A pair of dental pliers crossed Fotin's vision before searing pain greeted him and the sound of teeth clattering onto the table. Lieutenant Commander Daniels watched the scene in front of him with calm indifference as Fotin Sonbelok writhed in pain.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky was calmly looking over reports on ship systems and their supply chain on his holotable. It had been several days since Lieutenant Commander Daniels had started his interrogation of Fotin Sonbelok. He had watched as _Voyager_ had used a blue beam to tow both of the Quarians ships back to their base of operations. Once there, they began the process of rebuilding the propulsion systems of the outdated ships. According to what Roland could see, _Voyager_ wasn't simply replacing their engines. They were giving them new engines of a completely new type that were similar in function to Covenant impulse drives.

"Roland? Got anything you could add to the overall process of what _Voyager_ is doing?" Captain Lasky asked as Roland had been keeping a close eye on everything that had been going on.

Roland looked over the hologram and system readouts on the Quarian ships. "Well Captain, the only thing we could add without things getting too far beyond their means would be improving their cooling systems. They're outright abysmal by our standards." He brought up a schematic. "They're prone to overheating their drive cores and slagging the ship."

"Like our old fusion drives used to be during the war." Captain Lasky nodded as he looked over what was on the holotable. "What do you think can be done to improve upon their tech base without going too far?"

Roland then started manipulating and modifying the holographic images of both ships. "Well, we could give them a dumbed down version of what was pioneered on the _Pillar of Autumn_. It won't be nearly as effective, but it'll still be leagues above what they use now."

Captain Lasky thought on Roland's proposal as he cupped his chin. "Alright. That shouldn't be too much of a stretch to pull off. Open a channel to _Voyager_."

Several moments later had Captain Janeway's form appearing on the holotable screen. "_Captain Lasky? What can we do for you?_"

"Roland and myself were just observing what you're ship has been doing. We were looking to contribute something of our own to the cause, to say the least." Captain Lasky said as he had Roland bring up his modified holographic images. "Our fusion reactor technology is very advanced. And as such, we noticed that their designs are prone to overheating. This is a low tech version of a cooling system that we designed five years ago."

Captain Janeway's image turned to look back to her operations officer. "_Mr Kim. What are your thoughts on their offer._"

Ensign Kim looked over the design before him. "_You're saying that that's a low tech version of what you use? Honestly, that's pretty advanced compared to their tech base. It would allow their ships to run at full power for much longer than they do now._" He stopped and looked to be in thought for a few moments. "_Yes, they should be able to handle your cooling tech as long as they know the basics of how it works._"

Roland took on a satisfied look as he spoke up. "Glad that you approve of my design. You should see what my _Infinity_ can do when she really lets loose!"

"_You're saying that you designed this for their use, Roland?_" Captain Janeway asked.

"Yup! On the spot too! I'm just that awesome!" Roland cheerfully replied. "By the way, we noticed that the engines you're installing are similar in function to Covenant impulse drive designs."

"_Yes. They are similar in function but more advanced in practice. They're essentially low end civilian impulse drives that they should be able to maintain with little issue. They'll be far more efficient and effective than what they currently use._" Captain Janeway elaborated.

"Well, that settles that for the time being." Captain Lasky said as he straightened himself. "We've learned all that we can from the pirate leader. We were preparing to send over a stealth prowler to his bases' location to gain all the intel that we can."

"_Alright. When you're ready to make your move against the pirate base, let us know. Voyager will join you for the assault to help with disabling their ships and rescuing any slaves that they have._" Captain Janeway offered.

"Glad for the help, Captain. With how you were able to disable their ships without destroying them, we'll take all the help that we can. Our weapons are geared more towards outright destroying our targets for the most part." Captain Lasky admitted. "And with how small and fragile their ships seem to be, I doubt they'd be able to take much punishment in the long run."

"_Agreed. Voyager, out._"

**Sahara-class heavy prowler UNSC **_**Cover of Night**_

**Bridge**

The flight crews of the _Infinity_ had just finished removing all of the _Cover of Night_'s nuclear ordinance. "No use in dumping any of our nukes in slipspace. That'd be just a waste." Lieutenant Commander Daniels mused to himself as he prepared his prowler for silent observation. There was no point in releasing a burst of radiation upon leaving slipspace by carrying their usual complement of nukes.

He had learned all that he could from the Batarian pirate. The fact that he learned a little about Batarian society had been an unexpected bonus. "Buying your way into the upper echelons of society? That's just barbaric."

After studying the method of radio comms the two stolen ships used, the Huragok of the _Infinity_ had built an additional module that would allow them to properly decrypt and monitor their radio signals. "Roland? Do we have the green light to proceed yet?" Lieutenant Commander Daniels asked of Roland's fragment that had been entrusted to him for the operation.

"Final preparations should be finished soon." Roland's fragment answered.

"Excellent. How long should our short journey in slipspace take?" Lieutenant Commander Daniels queried.

"The pirate base is eighty two light years from our current location. It should only take us roughly two hours to travel there."

Lieutenant Commander Daniels nodded at this. "We'll drop a slipspace comm beacon in transit so we can remain in contact with the _Infinity_." Roland's fragment logged that task into the flight plan. "Have the ship cloaked and stealth systems active prior to leaving slipspace."

"Aye, sir. Launch will commence in T-minus ten minutes." Roland replied.

Two hours later saw the UNSC _Cover of Night_ exiting slipspace in the system that the pirate base was located at. "Exit from slipspace confirmed. Stealth systems active and cloak functioning optimally. Drift is within acceptable limits." The sensor officer confirmed.

"Good. Begin passive scans. Let's see where our targets are hiding." Lieutenant Commander Daniels ordered.

"Yes sir."

"Roland. Once we've located their base, slip into their systems and gather all the intel you can without being noticed." Daniels spoke as Roland's avatar appeared on the holotable.

"Consider it done, sir. I doubt that any of their ships will be able to handle me, even if they're newer than those old outdated ships we encountered." Roland commented.

"Still, take your time. We have a week before they'll start wondering where their leader is."

The location of the pirate base was located half an hour later. It was situated in the hollowed out remnants of a large oblong mined out resource satellite that was eighty one km in width along its longest axis. There was a hole completely through the middle of its thinnest axis that was three km in width. "Well, it looks like they're using that large opening as a makeshift shipyard with the internal tunnels as living space and storage for parts." Lieutenant Commander Daniels said as Roland looked over what their sensors could see.

"And it looks like this system is littered with mined out resource satellites like this. This one just so happens to be the most stable of the bunch it seems." Roland added as he looked over the data they had so far collected.

"Time to get to work." Lieutenant Commander Daniels spoke as he settled himself into his chair.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Memorial park atrium**

Captain Lasky and Captain Janeway were currently sitting on a bench in the _Infinity_'s nature park atrium. "I'll never get tired of this place. Just a little piece of home to take with us everywhere we go." Captain Lasky admitted as he took in a deep breath.

Captain Janeway seemed to be enjoying the scenery as well. "It seems like forever since I've seen a real tree from Earth. Our holodecks are very accurate, but they don't compare to the real thing."

Captain Lasky blinked a few times as he thought on that. "We have our own holodecks in a sense. Our war games scenarios use holographic projections and other methods to simulate combat environments. I'm not sure how they would compare to your own unless I saw it for myself."

"Well, I'm sure that I can arrange a visit to my ship so I can give you a tour." Captain Janeway offered. "If you'll allow us, may we schedule visits to your park here? It would more than likely help boost the moral of several of my crew who were born on Earth."

Captain Lasky smiled at that. "I don't see any issue with your request. I'd be happy to allow your crew to have a little reminder that home isn't a far off dream."

"Thank you, Captain." Captain Janeway graciously thanked him at his acceptance.

Roland's avatar appeared on a holo pedestal nearby. "Glad you like our nature park, Ma'am. It sure does wonders for those who are a bit homesick at times."

"I can see why." Captain Janeway said as she admired the view and feel of unfiltered air brushing against her skin. "This is a completely self contained biosphere, isn't it?"

"Sure is! Complete with wildlife, plants, and insects."

Captain Lasky laughed a bit at Roland's enthusiasm. He straightened into his command posture. "Roland. Status report."

Roland stood at attention at the order. "UNSC _Cover of Night_ has successfully located the pirate base, sir. They've begun silent observation and intel collection operations."

"Good. Keep me informed of their progress." Captain Lasky ordered as Roland's avatar saluted before winking out. He turned back to Captain Janeway. "Would you like to watch the war games scenario we created from what we learned from our encounter with the Batarians?"

Captain Janeway thought on that. "Well, ground combat isn't generally something that I get involved with regularly. But, in the interest of sharing knowledge, I'll join you for now."

"Well, it's a long walk down to the war games deck. Care for a casual stroll through my ship?" Captain Lasky offered as he stood up.

"By all means, lead the way." Captain Janeway replied.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**War games deck**

A full on war game was in progress as they stepped into the observation area. Captain Janeway, along with Tuvok and Seven of Nine, rounded out the Starfleet crew. The Spartan IV's were currently in the middle of a boarding operation against a fully crewed version of the Turian cruiser that they had encountered already. They could only infer as to the abilities of the biotics of this universe, so they decided to leave them out. They instead had more competent Batarian soldiers with a more diverse loadout of weapons as the ships defenders. As the ones they encountered were merely somewhat trained and not true soldiers with sub par gear.

Captain Lasky looked on as the scenario played out in front of them. "How are the Quarians handling their current situation?"

"They're coping as best as they can for the time being." Captain Janeway replied as she shook her head and sighed before continuing. "They keep asking us to share our technology and weapons with them. They're insisting that with our weapons they can take back their homeworld from the Geth. I'm not keen on doing that as they would most definitely be denying the Geth the right to exist as sentient entities."

Roland appeared on a nearby holo pedestal. "I've looked over their history in the Codex, and I agree with you there. Even though the Geth aren't true AI, they still deserve the chance to exist in my eyes." He gestured to the side as he brought up a file. "It was at the Citadel Council's insistence that they attempted to destroy the Geth just for gaining sentience. The Geth merely acted in self defense as far as I can see."

Captain Lasky's brow creased at the mention of the Citadel Council. "This Citadel Council seems to be far too self serving as far as I can see. The Genophage, the exile of the Quarians? I'd hate to see what they would do to us just for doing the things we did to survive during our war with the Covenant."

"This new reality that we find ourselves in, something just feels wrong. The fact that the mass relays seem to be far older than what the Citadel Council believes them to be. Along with technological advancement seemingly coming to a standstill. The governmental structure has also instigated a number of limits that just seem to have limited them artificially for no reason." Captain Janeway mused aloud. "What do you think so far, Captain Lasky?"

Captain Lasky crossed his arms in thought. "It just seems far fetched that something isn't working behind the scenes to keep them all down in a sense. The outright fear of AI? Something like that just doesn't happen unless incidents in the past guided their hands."

"And I've seen nothing else in their history that would allude to that besides the Morning War." Roland added.

"We've been successfully using AI for 500 years now. Sure, there were minor incidents here and there in our history, but we were able to learn from those mistakes and fix the issue. Roland here is a Smart AI based off of the scan of a human brain." Captain Lasky explained before he gestured for Roland to continue.

"That brain scan is then compiled into what we call a Riemann Matrix. We use donated brains for this as the mapping of the neural pathways destroys the brain in question. Each donor is carefully chosen for their intelligence and overall skill in the areas of expertise that the Smart AI is being created for." Roland elaborated further.

"Which in turn grants the Smart AI with intuitive thinking, creativity, and a human sense of morality. Is that correct?" Seven of Nine asked.

"Bingo! I've also been programmed with Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics. So that adds an additional safety net, so to speak." Roland replied.

"We utilize AI to an extent in our own society. But it seems that you have taken that a step further." Captain Janeway pointed out.

Roland gestured energetically. "We sure have, Ma'am! AI's are integral to our day to day operations across all of our colonies. They're entrusted with a myriad of different tasks as simple as traffic control to something as complicated and delicate as surgery."

"Surgery…" Captain Janeway seemed to trail off in thought at that. "How much do your AI doctors handle on their own?"

Captain Lasky smiled and nodded to Roland to answer. "Well, we still have regular medical practitioners, if that's what you're asking about. The auto docs handle all of the more sensitive medical procedures."

Captain Janeway shared a look with her two subordinates. "Perhaps we could learn from each other in the medical field then. Would you be willing to share your medical knowledge with us in exchange for our own?"

Roland looked over to Captain Lasky and they shared an amused shrug. "If it means more lives are saved in the long run, then I'm all for it." Captain Lasky voiced his approval.

"Excellent! When our Doctor finishes his current task of treating the injured slaves I'll have him brought over." Captain Janeway offered.

"How bad were their injuries?"

Captain Janeway sighed and her face took on a stern look. "The Quarians themselves were fine overall. It was Fotin's three personal slaves who were the worst off." She shook her head at the details of all of their injuries. "It seems that he used them for his own personal enjoyment. Said enjoyment entailed beatings and torture of varying degree. The three of them were near death according to the Doctor."

"From your description, I can assume that they weren't Quarians." Captain Lasky stated.

"You would be correct. One human woman around her mid twenties. The other two were Asari maidens from what we've been able to gather. We were planning on removing their enslavement chips today since it would've been too dangerous to do so earlier." Captain Janeway explained.

Captain Lasky's face took on a hard look as he turned to Roland. "Roland. Status of Fotin Sonbelok?" He ordered.

"Still alive for now, sir." Roland answered.

"Keep it that way. He's got a lot that he has to answer for." Captain Lasky stated sternly.

"Aye, sir." Roland saluted.

Captain Lasky took in a deep breath as he regained his calm. "We got a little off topic there. If you don't mind, I've noticed that you haven't referred to your doctor by name yet. Is there a reason for that?"

Captain Janeway smiled in an exasperated manner. "Our Doctor is supposed to be our ships Emergency Medical Hologram, for use in emergencies only. We lost our entire medical staff upon being flung into the delta quadrant of our galaxy. So, needless to say, he has been overworked beyond his original programming."

Captain Lasky winced at the thought of losing his entire medical staff. "Ouch. That has to be rough. Is he only limited to your med bay? Or is your ship equipped with holoprojectors on all decks?"

"He was limited to the med bay and the holodecks at first. But, we came across a piece of technology that freed him from that limitation. A mobile holo emitter, to be precise." Captain Janeway elaborated on the Doctor's situation.

Roland and Captain Lasky shared a look. "A mobile holo emitter you say. Have you been able to reproduce that piece of tech yet?" Roland asked in obvious interest.

Captain Janeway silently laughed at Roland's interest. "Sadly, no. It's far beyond our technological understanding at the moment."

Roland smiled. "Why not let our Huragok have a look at it. Once they've gained the knowledge of how something works, they can replicate its inner workings down to the nanoscopic scale with the appropriate resources."

Captain Janeway blinked at that. "Are they truly that gifted when it comes to technology?"

"Yup! The most advanced tech in our galaxy was built by the Forerunners. And they were capable of stellar engineering on a massive scale. As in creating artificial stars and dyson spheres of all things." Roland energetically answered.

Captain Janeway looked to Tuvok and Seven of Nine. "Your galaxy is truly astounding. How many of these Forerunner artefacts are still around?"

Captain Lasky looked to be in thought for a moment. He nodded over to Roland as he gave his silent approval. "We haven't explored every part of our galaxy yet. However, we've come across a number of their installations that are massive in scale. Their technology is far beyond anything else that we've come into contact with. The Huragok themselves were created by them in order to maintain and repair their technology." Roland said as he displayed the Ark with a size scale next to it.

Tuvok and Seven of Nine looked at the display with their calm and blank expressions while Captain Janeway had an expression of awe. "These Forerunners must have been extraordinarily advanced to have been able to build on such a large scale." Tuvok stated in his clinical tone.

"They appear to have built on an even larger scale than the Borg from our own galaxy." Seven of Nine added.

Captain Lasky laughed to himself. "We seem to be getting off topic again. If you're willing, we could have the Huragok see if they can build more mobile holo emitters for you."

"As long as they promise not to break our only one, I don't see why not." Captain Janeway accepted.

"Don't worry, I'll have them take their time working on it." Roland assured.

**UNSC **_**Cover of Night**_

**Bridge**

Several days after they had arrived in system, the crew of the _Cover of Night_ had gained all the information and intel that they would need to bring the entire pirate operation down. "Alright. I'd say I've gotten everything I can from all of their systems." Roland stated. "Their systems were a bit more robust than the Quarians old ships, but I was able to add a few back doors into their systems so that we can further spread chaos if we need to."

"Good work, Roland. Forward all intel to the _Infinity_. I think it's about time we put a stop to these disgusting slavers." Lieutenant Commander Daniels said with a disdainful tone at the end.

"Aye, sir!" Roland saluted.

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

The crew of the USS _Voyager _had returned to their ship to further discuss amongst themselves what had been offered aboard the _Infinity _shortly after the war game had ended. "Chakotay? What are your thoughts on their offers?" Captain Janeway asked of her first officer.

"It's certainly tempting." Chakotay admitted. "If it'll help out the Doctor in the long run while giving us security in the case of his systems failure, I say we accept their offer."

"Also, if their Huragok are capable of replicating his mobile emitter, that could further our own holo technology." Ensign Kim added.

"Along with their own. Their war games scenario was effective, but it was primitive by our standards in its capability." Tuvok voiced his opinion on the UNSC's simulation tech.

Captain Janeway agreed with that assessment. "Yes. Perhaps they could offer a few medical techs while we're working on our way home. That would certainly alleviate some of the Doctor's workload in the meantime while we adjust to any advances in medical knowledge that they give us."

"Any help that they can offer will be greatly appreciated. I'm doing the best that I can, but actually trained medical personnel would be better than what I can offer." Ensign Paris commented in reference to his status as the Doctor's assistant.

"Well, when the time comes, I'll be sure to ask for any personnel that they can lend for the time being." Captain Janeway said. "Mr Kim. How is the progress on repairing the Quarian ships coming along?"

Ensign Kim looked over his reports on his engineering teams progress. "The engine repairs are nearly complete. We've had to reinforce the thruster mounts as they weren't strong enough to handle the new impulse engines output. It's taking more time to implement the new cooling system that the UNSC has offered though. We're having to gut a lot of the old and unnecessary equipment in the sections near their mass effect cores that it's going to take up. In the end though, their ships will be far better off in power generation and propulsion once we've finished."

"Now that you've had the chance to examine their mass effect tech up close, what are your thoughts on it?" Captain Janeway asked.

Ensign Kim crossed his arms in thought for several seconds. "It's effective in small scale applications. However, it becomes exponentially more expensive in terms of the amount of element zero needed to build larger ships. The largest ships that they can build in terms of overall cost are their dreadnoughts, which are usually just over a kilometer in length in most cases according to the Codex. Any larger than that and they become far too expensive to build."

Captain Janeway nodded at his explanation. "And their shielding tech?"

"According to the Codex and what the Quarians have told us, their kinetic barriers are the only type of shielding that they believe to be possible. They truly have seen no need to further their scientific knowledge in any other field than what mass effect offers." Ensign Kim said with a hint of disbelief. "To just put all your eggs in one basket like this, it just seems too good to be true if you ask me."

Chakotay spoke up. "The fact that all of the space faring species of this galaxy have adopted nearly the same method of space travel, something just doesn't feel right at all about this."

"Agreed. Once we've finished assisting the Quarians and they're on their way back to their people, we'll start a more in-depth investigation into this." Captain Janeway stated. A chorus of agreements sounded out among the bridge crew.

Several hours later, their routine activities were interrupted by the _Infinity_ making itself known. "Captain. We are being hailed by the _Infinity_." Seven of Nine reported.

"On screen."

The main screen was then occupied with Captain Lasky's visage along with Roland standing in the foreground on his holotable. "_Captain Janeway. We're making preparations to head to the pirate base and begin our assault._"

"Good. What intel was your stealth prowler able to acquire?" Captain Janeway queried.

Roland then brought up a holographic display of the system in question. "_We've been able to determine that they have a total of ten frigates and two cruisers by their standards currently in the system. Four of their frigates are currently out acting as a picket patrol due to them lacking FTL sensors. Two are currently in their shipyard while the other four are standing by near their base. One of their cruisers is in the shipyard as well._"

Captain Janeway took in the information. "And the Quarian slaves? What's their current status?"

"_Thankfully, they're all located within the shipyard and working on the ships in dock at the moment. They've all got collars on them for location and control information._" Captain Lasky said as his face took on a stern look. "_The collars are equipped with an electric shock applicator and explosive charge. Roland has left you a way into their systems so that you can disable the explosive charges before you attempt a rescue._"

The faces of the bridge crew shifted into shock and disbelief. "My god… either work or die." Captain Janeway uttered as she calmed herself. "Alright. What do you need us to do?"

"_If you can concentrate on rescuing the Quarians, we can focus on taking out their ships._" Captain Lasky requested.

Captain Janeway nodded at this. "Acknowledged. Do you have any other intel that may be useful?"

Roland spoke up as he brought up a display and readouts of the pirate base. "_According to what we've been able to determine, the mined out asteroid the base is located in is lightly laced with some kind of crystal that we're not familiar with. The pirates have deemed it to be useless for their uses. The Batarian pirates themselves have set up living quarters and storage within the tunnels that perforate the asteroid_."

Ensign Kim looked over the information critically. "Wait… is that…?" He muttered to himself. His muttering went unnoticed for the moment.

"Understood. We'll do a detailed scan once we arrive in system and act accordingly once we determine if those crystals will interfere with our transporters." Captain Janeway replied.

Captain Lasky smiled lightly. "_Let us know when you're ready to make the jump with the Infinity. It's a short jump of just over an hour from our current location._"

"Acknowledged, Captain. We'll put our repairs of the Quarian ships on hold for the time being. I'm not leaving any of my crew behind." Captain Janeway stated.

"_I don't blame you. Infinity, out._" Captain Lasky's image disappeared as the screen went back to a view of the ships they were currently working on.

"Mr Kim. Recall all personnel. Mr Tuvok. I want all crew ready and the Quarians secured for this operation." Captain Janeway ordered. "The Quarians are counting on us to make things right."

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky was leaning over the holotable as he and Roland watched the near real time intel that was being relayed to them by the _Cover of Night_. "I wonder how they're going to react to the sight of a ship the size of the _Infinity_. What I wouldn't do to see their faces! Oh wait… I can set that up actually!" Roland joked.

The _Infinity_ was fifteen minutes out from arriving at its destination. _Voyager_ and two strident heavy frigates were following behind them once again. "_Roland_… not now. Is everything ready?"

Roland laughed a bit. "Yes sir! Everything is ready to bring the pain down on the Batarian pirates."

"Good. Load sub caliber MAC rounds for this. No need to go completely overkill on taking out their ships." Captain Lasky ordered.

"Aye sir!"

"Open a channel to _Voyager_." Captain Lasky called out. The bridge of _Voyager_ appeared on the holotable. "Captain Janeway. We'll be at our slipspace exit in approximately 10 minutes from now."

"_Understood, Captain. We're ready to do our part in rescuing the Quarians._"

"Roland. Link our intel to _Voyager_."

"Yes sir!" Roland said as he linked over the _Cover of Night_'s sensor feeds.

"_Good. It looks like we can make a straight shot towards the pirate base if we need to. Hmm… defense turrets. Mr Tuvok. Be ready to take out their turrets as soon as we're in range._"

"While _Voyager_ handles rescuing the Quarians, have all sub vessels deploy and hunt down the enemy corvettes on their picket patrol." Captain Lasky directed towards Roland.

"Aye sir!"

**500,000 km from Batarian pirate base**

A slipspace portal took shape as the bow of the _Infinity_ made its way back into normal space followed by _Voyager_ and two stridents. Immediately upon exiting slipspace, Roland pointed the bow towards the loose grouping of Batarian ships that were lazily doing mundane maneuvers away from the main base.

"Captain Janeway? What's the verdict on getting the Quarians out quickly?" Captain Lasky asked.

"_Scanning… there is too much interference from the makeup of the asteroid._" Seven of Nine spoke up from her station. "_We will have to be within 100 km to be able to successfully beam them out, Captain._"

"_Looks like we get to make an up close inspection of their base, Captain Lasky. We'll let you know once we've rescued all of the Quarians._" Captain Janeway answered.

"Understood. We'll handle the pirate ships in the meantime. _Infinity_, out." Captain Lasky said as the feed cut out. Captain Lasky and Roland both watched as the nimble starfleet vessel started accelerating towards the pirate base at a near impossible rate.

"Holy shit! That is one fast little ship." Roland stated in awe as _Voyager _was still gaining speed.

"No kidding. How fast are they moving?"

Roland's mouth dropped open. "They're moving at 0.25c. That's one quarter the speed of light with just their sublight engines sir!"

"Good Lord…!" Captain Lasky said in disbelief.

By this time, the Batarian ships had started to move in their general direction. "Well, looks like they've finally decided to get off their asses. And I mean that literally, sir. From what I could see on their camera feeds, the Batarians were just twiddling their thumbs in boredom while they waited for their boss to come back." Roland said as he smirked before talking again. "How's that for a shocked expression just from laying eyes on my _Infinity_!" Roland remarked as he brought up still images of the Batarians.

Captain Lasky stifled a snicker at this. "_Roland_… deploy all sub vessels and send them out on their hunting mission."

"Yes sir!"

"Bring us within range of their ships. Fire when ready. Let's show them what the UNSC can do." Captain Lasky ordered.

The group of four Batarian frigates and one cruiser formed themselves up into a loose arrowhead formation with the cruiser at the lead with two frigates on either side. They started firing despite the fact that they were out of range of the massive ship in front of them. "Are they even aiming at us?!" Roland commented.

The undisciplined fire missed the _Infinity_ by a wide margin as they closed the distance between each other. "What do you expect? They're pirates. They probably think that we don't have shields since they're not getting any element zero readings from us."

Roland shrugged. "Probably. Coming within range now sir. Firing on the lead ship."

One of the _Infinity_'s bow MACs fired a sub caliber round that weighed 600 tons at 12,000 km per second. The round covered the distance between them at several times the speed that a dreadnought from this universe could fire its shells at. The accuracy that Roland had meant that the Batarian cruiser had almost no time to maneuver out of the path of the incoming MAC round. The round impacted against the kinetic barrier of the cruiser slightly off center from its central axis. The kinetic barrier flared for a split second as it tried and failed to block the multi gigaton impact forces directed against it. The round punched through the entirety of the cruiser and exited out the stern as the shockwave it generated in the atmosphere inside the ship liquified any crew in the vicinity of the shells path. Not that any other crew would've lived much longer as the mass effect core of the cruiser went critical in a brilliant storm of dark energy.

"Direct hit! The corvettes are scattering!" The weapons officer called out.

Captain Lasky looked on in satisfaction. "Good shot, Roland. Weapons free. I don't want any of these pirates getting away."

Roland had an evil grin on his face as he rubbed his hands together. "Oh… they won't. I disabled their FTL capacity after we entered the system. My fragment left me a handy way into their systems before we got here."

"Very sneaky, Roland." Captain Lasky said as he looked back to what their sensors could read on _Voyager_.

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

After making their way within firing range of the Batarian base, Tuvok started firing pulses of _Voyager_'s phaser arrays at the defense turrets. The turrets had difficulty even hitting the nimble and fast ship. The shots that did hardly made any difference as they lacked the necessary punch to bring their shields down. "Seven of Nine. What's the status of the ships in drydock?"

"Scanning. The three ships are currently unable to power up at this time as their mass effect cores are disabled for maintenance." Seven of Nine reported.

"Well that makes things easy. Mr Tuvok. Continue disabling all of their bases' defenses. Mr Paris. Take us around the asteroid." Captain Janeway commanded.

"Yes Captain." Ensign Paris replied as he plotted a course around the asteroid so that Tuvok could get the angles he'd need to fire on the turrets.

A minute later, Tuvok calmly made his report. "All base defenses neutralized."

"Good work, Mr Tuvok. Transporter room. Do you have a lock on all of the Quarians within the pirate base?" Captain Janeway asked over the ship comms.

"_Yes Captain. Their slave collars are acting as a beacon that we can lock onto through the interference. Ready to beam them aboard on your mark._"

"Seven, disable the explosive charges in the collars."

"Yes Captain. All collars disabled." Seven of Nine answered.

"Transporter room. Energize." Captain Janeway ordered.

A minute later, all of the Quarians had been beamed aboard. "_Transportation complete. All Quarians safely on board, Captain._"

"Captain. The Batarians are attempting to bring their cruiser back online." Tuvok called out.

"Make sure that doesn't happen. Disable it."

Ensign Kim was busy looking over the scans on the asteroid now that they were so close to it. "Uh… Captain. You're not going to believe this, but those crystals… they're dilithium. And they're ultra pure at that." Ensign Kim spoke up excitedly. "The reason for all of the asteroids in this system is more than likely due to all of the dilithium deposits creating extreme tectonic stresses in the planets that they were originally a part of."

Captain Janeway blinked at that. It took a couple seconds for what he said to hit her. "Ultra pure dilithium crystals? Did I hear you right?"

"Yes Captain. And there's more than we could possibly use in that asteroid alone." Ensign Kim answered.

Captain Janeway laughed at the situation while shaking her head. "Well, looks like we've gotten ourselves an added bonus out of these pirates actions." She then thought about what next actions that they should take in the meantime. "Seven. Status of the UNSC ships."

"Scanning. The _Infinity_ has already destroyed the small force of five ships that were near the asteroid. Its sub vessels split into groups of four to hunt down the remaining pirate ships in system." Seven of Nine answered.

"Status of their sub vessels?"

"One group has already accomplished their task. The other group is in the process of destroying their targets as we speak."

"On screen. Maximum magnification." Captain Janeway said to her second tactical officer.

What greeted them on the main screen was the smaller forms of the Batarian frigates desperately trying to escape from a series of what appeared to be plasma torpedoes trailing after them. They would make a hard turn that would barely avoid the torpedoes only to be hit by a pulse laser blast. Even though they had ablative armor, it wasn't strong enough to deal with a laser that was several magnitudes stronger than what it was designed to handle.

"Which ship fired those plasma torpedoes?" Captain Janeway asked.

"It appears that the smaller frigate with the atmospheric lifting body fired them. It is also the one firing the pulse lasers." Seven of Nine answered.

"Scans show that the ship is using a different style of fusion reactor than its counterparts." Tuvok spoke up.

"Well, the UNSC seems to learn fast, don't they?" Captain Janeway said as she recognized what the smaller frigate was using as being reverse engineered from the Covenant.

One of the frigates took a direct hit to its engines and began to spin uncontrollably. That gave the trailing plasma torpedoes enough time for them to catch up and boil their way into the ships armor and internals. Various secondary explosions spread through the ship before its mass effect core detonated in colors of dark energy. The second frigate suffered a harder hit as a MAC round hit the ship near its bow, its weak kinetic barriers doing nothing to stop the massive round. The impact nearly tore off the entire front section of the ship as it started to drift without control. It suffered the same fate as the first as the plasma torpedoes flash boiled their way into the ship.

"All Batarian ships destroyed or disabled, Captain." Seven of Nine reported.

"The UNSC are certainly effective and ruthless when it comes to their space combat." Captain Janeway commented out loud. "At least we rescued the Quarians without issue."

"Captain. The _Infinity_ is hailing us." Tuvok said.

"On screen."

"_Captain Janeway. We've finished taking out the Batarians local ships. Have you been able to successfully rescue all of the Quarians?_" Captain Lasky asked.

"We have." Captain Janeway stated in satisfaction. "The asteroid that the pirates chose as their base just so happens to be laced with a crystal that we use for our warp core."

Captain Lasky seemed to smirk at that. "_So you got an added bonus for your trouble in the end. Do you need to collect any of these crystals from the asteroid before we leave the system?_"

"No, Captain. _Voyager_ is fine on supplies at the moment." Captain Janeway replied. "We can always return at a later date if we need to."

"_Understood. The pirates left on the base still need to be dealt with though._" Captain Lasky stated.

Captain Janeway dipped her head in thought and resignation. "As distasteful as it is, we can't let them leave and continue their ways of piracy."

"_Agreed. We can handle this part if you need us to._" Captain Lasky offered.

"Thank you, Captain. It's much appreciated." Captain Janeway sighed. "We'll tow the Quarians freighter out of the pirate dock so we can bring it back with us. _Voyager_ may be capable of handling a few extra mouths to feed, but handling over a hundred extra is pushing it."

"_I can understand. Is their freighter capable of handling the jump through slipspace though?_" Captain Lasky asked.

Ensign Kim ran a scan of the freighter. "Not in the slightest. It doesn't have the necessary structural integrity to be able to handle the gravitational shifts within slipstream space." He answered. "We can, however, envelop the freighter in our own shields and protect it from the stress put on its frame."

"_That handles that issue. Now then, how to deal with the pirates still in their base._" Captain Lasky commented as he looked down to Roland. "_How volatile are these crystals laced through the asteroid?_"

"They only become volatile under extreme heat and electromagnetic forces." Captain Janeway replied. "What are your intentions?"

Roland then gestured to a graphic he started to play beside him. "_Well, we could just simply shatter the asteroid with our MACs and be done with it._" The graphic showed the _Infinity_ firing a MAC round into the asteroid.

Captain Janeway nodded at that. "Understood. That may end up exposing deposits of the crystals for easy extraction."

"_Let us know once you've finished towing their freighter to a safe distance. Infinity, out._" Captain Lasky spoke.

**AN:** I wanted to keep going but I also wanted to get something out for all of you to read. Anlace frigates are described as having Covenant styled energy weapons. So that means pulse lasers and plasma torpedoes. Being that the Covenant didn't truly understand all of the science behind their tech, it's no surprise that the UNSC would reverse engineer it and improve upon it. Meaning that the Anlace frigates would also possess a pinch fusion reactor to produce the necessary plasma for the torpedoes.

Now then, the ridiculous sublight speed of _Voyager_ is canon. Star Trek impulse drive speed is generally _limited_ to 0.25c to avoid any time dilation phenomenon. Yes, they limit their top speed. They can go faster if they need to but they don't due to the laws of relativity.

Let me know what everyone thinks so far. I'm going for a less descriptive space battle format as you can tell. Some people go ultra realistic in that sense and it can be really good or just bad in execution. Anyways, I like feedback. Any kind of criticism is good, even if it's negative in general. As long as it helps me to improve I'll be all for it. I can't improve unless someone points it out. So, let me know what you all think so far. Have a good one out there folks.

**Edit AN: **Made a couple minor edits to some mistakes I made. The first number I used for the amount of impact force with the Infnity's mac was just me lowballing it really. The Infinity's mac is a series 8 mac, which is in the same family of macs that the ODP super macs belong to. If a Punic class carrier can have 2 series 5 super macs, who's to say that Infinity's macs aren't super macs too. They are capable or firing various sub caliber rounds along with specialized munitions and even special built space vessels that can fit inside the 27 meter bore barrel.

**For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: **Wow! I didn't expect you guys to review so quickly with my last update. I seem to be doing things right so far in all of your eyes at the least. The interest in this story is honestly very humbling to me.

If you ever met me in real life you'd wonder how I'm so poor at verbal communication when I'm apparently reasonably adept at typing things out. The truth is, is that I've got a slight personality disorder along with a case of ADD. That combined with how I tend to jumble my words up when I'm speaking makes it seem like I'm an idiot. It's very hard for me to pick up on social cues most of the time as well. I can also emotionally detach myself when necessary and just brush everything off as inconsequential. Hell, my wife thinks I might be a slight sociopath or something because of that. Anybody that gets her mad won't get away without her giving them a piece of her mind. No matter the situation either. Me? I can just walk away and be done with it without batting an eye.

One of the things I'm doing with Roland is making his boastfulness about his abilities and the _Infinity_ a little more visible. He's serious when he needs to be, but when he's got the chance he'll happily boast.

**Edit AN:** Things aren't as they appear at the end of the chapter. If you know Halo lore then you should be able to figure out what it really is and not what it appears to be. Putting this note in here so readers aren't turned away because it looks like something else instead of what it really is.

**Chapter 6: Investigations**

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

"_Captain? The Quarians are insisting that they speak with you urgently._" The voice of a security officer came over the ship comms.

Captain Janeway shared a look with her first officer. "What do you think this is over?" She asked Chakotay.

Chakotay looked back to the screen and what _Voyager _was currently doing. "My guess? They want to steal the Batarian ships for themselves." He thought back on his time with the Maquis. "I say let them. With how their race wholly depends on their ships for survival, they need those ships more than the Batarians will shortly."

Ensign Paris turned around. "Poetic justice at its best." He shrugged. "The pirates wanted their ships to use for piracy and enslave them. Now the Quarians get to take their remaining ships for themselves."

"They will require extensive sanitation to meet their clean standards." Seven of Nine blankly added.

Captain Janeway smirked a bit. "I'm sure that they'll be more than willing to put forth the effort of that endeavor for the price of three free ships." She then got up from her captains chair. "Tuvok. Let's go talk this out with the Quarians."

"Yes Captain."

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Cargo bay 2**

Cul'Wafin vas Cubra was busy checking over his ships crew to make sure that everyone was present. He was distracted from his task when the door to the room that they were all in opened and a human woman in a red and black jumpsuit walked in. She was accompanied by a dark skinned man that had human features with notable differences in his ears and eyebrows. The security officer he had spoken to said something to the woman while pointing himself out to her.

Captain Janeway stepped towards him and spoke in a respectful tone. "My name is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship USS _Voyager_. I was told that you wanted to speak to me urgently."

"My name is Cul'Wafin vas Cubra. I am the Captain of the Quarian freighter _Cubra_. I was told by some of my crew that your ship had rescued them and are currently assisting in repairing our stolen ships." He bowed his head in thanks. "You have my most sincere thanks for saving us from those Batarian bosh'tets."

Captain Janeway nodded back. "You're more than welcome. We just couldn't sit idly by once we learned of what was happening to your people."

"Tell me. What was that technology that you used to pull us from where we were and into your ship? I've never heard of the Systems Alliance having such tech before." Cul'Wafin asked in disbelief.

Captain Janeway smiled a bit. "We're not from the Systems Alliance. We're from the United Federation of Planets. And, before you ask, we're not from around here. So to speak."

"That… doesn't make much sense." Cul'Wafin said in a confused tone. "Are you a branch off civilization of humanity that we haven't heard of before?"

An exasperated sigh escaped Captain Janeway's lips. "No. We're from a different reality altogether. An accident with a new drive core we were testing flung us into your reality."

A tilt of Cul'Wafin's head further showed his confusion. "Wait… that makes even less sense. You're telling me that you come from a different reality? And yet, you still look much like any other human that I've ever met."

"Yes. And so too do the humans on the other ship that was caught in the anomaly that brought us here." Captain Janeway said as she gestured to a terminal on the wall. "Computer. Display an image of the UNSC _Infinity_ with a size scale next to it."

"_Yes Captain._" The computers blank voice came through the rooms speakers.

The image of the UNSC _Infinity_ then appeared on the terminal screen. Cul'Wafin and Captain Janeway walked over to it. "Computer. Translate the text to Khelish."

Cul'Wafin looked over the image in front of him. It slowly hit him as he stood stock still once the realization that the UNSC _Infinity_ was far larger than any ship he had ever seen. "Keelah…! But… how… how is that even possible!? The amount of element zero needed for a ship of that size would be insane!"

Captain Janeway shook her head. "Neither of our ships use element zero at all. Before we came to this reality, we had never even heard of it. Both of our ships utilize very different types of FTL and technology."

Cul'Wafin seemed to take on a pleading stance before he spoke. "Then… would you be willing to share your technology with us. Please… we need it to-" He stopped as Captain Janeway cut him off.

"No. I will not be sharing my ships technology or theirs with your people. It would most definitely do more harm than good as you are not ready for its implications." Captain Janeway resolutely said. "We've seen what happens when races gain access to technology that they are not ready for. Your people would immediately go to war instead of guaranteeing your continued survival if we shared our technology with you."

"The Citadel Council has denied my people the right to any colonies at all! Condemning us to a slow death on our own ships!" Cul'Wafin seemed to bristle for a moment after he said that before Tuvok stood closer while putting a hand on the phaser on his hip. He turned his head away as he calmed himself. "What then… are you willing to share with us."

Captain Janeway relaxed as Cul'Wafin calmed down. "Well, I'm sure you've noticed that three of the Batarian ships are still in their docks. What would you say if we helped you to take them for yourselves?"

"That… we can accept. The only problem with that is, is that they are not currently functional. They still needed a few more days of repairs before they were spaceworthy once again." Cul'Wafin sighed. "Those Batarian bosh'tets were lucky that their ships didn't just blow up on them. Sure, they were only a decade old, but they were acting like things such as regular maintenance didn't even exist to them."

"Well, I'm sure that we can work something out in that respect." Captain Janeway assured.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky was looking over the reports on his ships sub vessels. They had all performed admirably as far as he could see. Even though the Batarian frigates were highly maneuverable, that didn't make up for their poor command and the UNSC ships high accuracy. "Well, it looks like the Anlace frigates really pulled their weight in this engagement." Captain Lasky said in satisfaction.

"No kidding. From my scans, those corvettes had nowhere near thick enough ablative armor to take hits from their pulse lasers. The corvettes were trying really hard to avoid the plasma torpedoes, but that left them open to hits from the pulse lasers." Roland said as he gestured to a video feed on the engagement. "All it took was one good hit for the plasma torpedoes to catch them."

"And even though our ships had meters of armor in some cases, we still stood no chance against plasma torpedoes." Captain Lasky stated as he sighed. "It looks like the ships of this universe seem to have chosen to avoid making their ships overly defensive. They're too dependent on their weak kinetic barriers overall."

"And since they lack true predictive AI targeting assistance, their accuracy suffers significantly." Roland added.

Captain Lasky nodded at that. "Alright. We've got the advantage in defense and offense. That much is clear." He stood straight from his leaning position over the holotable. "What is _Voyager_'s current status?"

Roland brought up a holographic image of the asteroid and _Voyager_'s position. "They're holding position near the opening of the shipyard. Maybe they're having trouble figuring out how to get the Quarian freighter loose without damaging it?"

Captain Lasky looked over the image. "I highly doubt that. Only one way to find out. Open a channel to _Voyager_!" He called out.

"_Captain Lasky. What can we do for you?_" The voice of _Voyager_'s first officer Chakotay came back over the comm.

"We were checking on your status. Are you having difficulty recovering the Quarian freighter from its dock?" Captain Lasky queried.

"_Well, about that. We were thinking of assisting the Quarians in taking the remaining Batarian ships for themselves._"

Roland looked up to Captain Lasky as his avatar shrugged. "Adding insult to injury. For the Batarians, that is." Captain Lasky said as he nodded. "I like it. Let us know if you need our assistance."

"_Acknowledged. Voyager, out._"

Over the next two hours, Captain Lasky and Roland observed as _Voyager_ used its phasers to carefully cut the three Batarian ships and the Quarian freighter free of their docking clamps. Which the Batarians had sabotaged in desperation to keep their ships from being taken. Captain Janeway, who seemed a bit squeamish when it came to dealing with the Batarian pirates, agreed to Captain Lasky's idea of just transporting them back into their base. Captain Lasky was more than willing to do what was necessary when it came down to it.

"Roland. Has _Voyager_ finished moving all ships to a safe distance?" Captain Lasky ordered.

"Aye, sir." Roland answered. "I've located large deposits of those crystals that the _Voyager_ crew said was useful to them. Should I shatter the asteroid in such a way that they can easily access them?"

"I don't see why not. Go ahead, Roland." Captain Lasky accepted. "Open a channel to _Voyager_!" He called out.

A moment later had Captain Janeway displayed on the holotable. "_Captain Lasky. We were about to inform you that we've finished moving all ships to a safe distance. We're ready for the Infinity to destroy the pirate base._"

Captain Lasky nodded down to Roland. "Aye, sir. Loading 3,000 ton MAC round, underpowered shot. That should be more than enough to shatter the asteroid if we hit the fault lines in the right place."

"Fire when ready, Roland."

"Firing in three… two… one…" Roland counted down.

The massive round left the barrel at a considerably slower speed than it could have been fired at. Its large size and speed had more than enough energy behind it to punch its way completely through the asteroid. It split the asteroid into numerous large chunks that glowed hot with the kinetic forces that were directed at it. Needless to say, no one would be using the mined out resource satellite for anything else ever again.

"Successful destruction of the asteroid!" The weapons officer called out.

"Good shot, Roland."

"Anybody could have made that shot. Well, maybe not the Batarians. Those guys couldn't hit the broad side of a barn compared to me." Roland replied.

"Agreed." Captain Lasky casually said. "Now then. How to get those three extra ships back with us to our base of operations."

Roland looked at the ships on the holotable. He brought up images of their sub vessels and put them next to the Batarian ships. "Well, they're not bigger than our frigates. We could dock them within our deployment bays." Roland suggested.

Captain Lasky looked over the comparison. "Are you sure that no one else is aboard and that they are unable to power up? I'd rather not have to deal with someone trying to shoot their way out of my ship."

Roland attempted a connection with the ships. "I got nothing, sir. They're essentially dead ships for now without the umbilicals that were attached to them in the shipyard."

"Alright. We can work with this then. Open a channel to _Voyager_." Captain Lasky ordered.

**Home base system (unofficial name) 4 hours later**

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

"We're clear of the slipspace rupture! All systems normal! Minimal drift!" The navigation officer called out.

Captain Lasky looked down to Roland with a stern face. "Roland. I want those _things_ off my ship as soon as we can manage it."

"Yes sir!" Roland replied.

Captain Lasky had several teams of Spartan IV's clear the Batarian ships while they were in transit back to their base of operations. It was a quick operation as the ships were essentially empty. Upon inspecting the inside of the ships, however, had revealed how depraved the Batarians really were. There were numerous cages all over the cargo areas of the ships. Animal cages is all they were in all honesty.

"Disgusting filthy animals. That's all I can say about these Batarians." Captain Lasky spoke with contempt.

"You got that right, sir. I feel like I should purge my own memory of that horrid mess." Roland voiced his own issues with what had been seen.

Captain Lasky took in a deep breath to calm himself. "Let's get back on topic. These Quarians need something to help them with their current biological state. Prepare detailed schematics of our sterile field generators, both portable and permanent types. I'm sure that they'll be more than willing to keep our presence here secret if we do that much for them."

"Aye, sir. That much we can agree on." Roland replied.

**One week later**

After a full week of repairs being rendered onto all of the local ships, they were finally up to the task of returning all of the Quarians back to their Migrant Fleet. Even the Huragok were sent over to the ships to see what they could do to their mass effect cores and anything else they could reach. Several minor arguments were had concerning the sharing of technology, but that was quickly settled when the Quarians figured out that they were not in a position to be demanding anything from either ship crews.

"Well, I'm glad this is finally over with. Now we can get back to the task of getting ourselves home in earnest." Captain Lasky said in obvious relief. He hated dealing with pirates in all honesty. Their refusal to follow the rules just ate at his disciplined nature.

"The Quarians aren't bad people as far as I could see. The whole resentment of them that I saw in all the data I pulled from the Batarian omni tools and systems? It's really undeserved if you ask me." Roland said as his avatar sighed. "All they're guilty of is doing something innovative to make their lives easier. The Citadel Council are the real culprits in their downfall as far as I can see."

"Agreed." Captain Lasky then watched the main screen as the Quarian ships all started moving away from their base of operations. "Inform me once they're far enough out of the system. Let's hope no one else stumbles on us and interrupts our efforts."

"Yes sir!"

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

Ensign Paris watched the main screen as the Quarians started to leave the system. All six of their ships were operating on the bare essentials to get them where they needed to be. He shuddered at the thought of what they had found inside the Batarian ships. "Boy am I glad we don't have to deal with those Batarian ships anymore. What we saw was just… _wrong_." He voiced his opinion.

"I don't blame you for thinking that way. Slavery is a disgusting practice, anywhere it rears its ugly head." Captain Janeway agreed.

"It appears to be even worse than what the Cardassians had done to the Bajorans." Chakotay added.

Seven of Nine had just stepped back onto the bridge. She had been busy adding all of the coordinate data from the Codex into their astrogation database. "Captain. I've finished updating our astrogation data with this universes' Codex provided coordinates."

"Good work. How much of this galaxy had they been able to explore?" Captain Janeway queried.

"They have explored less than one percent of the total star systems of this galaxy." Seven of Nine answered. "It appears that they do not travel far from the mass relays in general."

"Well, with how their FTL drives work in general, it's no surprise that they don't travel very far at all. They essentially risk cooking themselves in their own ships with how they build up static electric charges during FTL." Ensign Kim elaborated on Seven of Nine's observation.

Captain Janeway mulled this over in her head. "Something just doesn't feel right about how all of this fits together…" She thought out loud. "Have there been mass relays near all of the space faring races' home planets of this galaxy?"

Seven of Nine quickly looked over the data from the Codex. "There have only been a small handful of notable exceptions, but there has been a mass relay near every race encountered by the Citadel Council."

"It appears that Captain Lasky's casual observation of an outside actor guiding the development of the races of this galaxy has some merit to it." Tuvok voiced his opinion.

Ensign Kim was going over several things in his head that reading the Codex had made clear to him. "The Asari have been space faring for over 2,700 years. In that amount of time, they should've been able to come up with different means of space travel by now. Even if the method was merely novel in execution, scientific study into other fields of science should have yielded results."

"With its ease of use, mass effect has essentially blinded them to any other possibilities." Chakotay commented. "This is looking more and more like guided development to me. But for what purpose though?"

"That, we'll have to look into more thoroughly at a later time." Captain Janeway ended the current discussion. "Mr Tuvok. How are the mental treatments of the human and Asari slaves of Fotin Sonbelok progressing?"

Upon noticing how bad the mental states of Fotin's three personal slaves were, Captain Janeway had decided to keep them aboard for further treatment and rehabilitation. "Their mental state is slowly improving. However, the trauma from what the imbedded slave chips imparted to them is making progress slower than it should be." Tuvok answered.

"Understood. Keep me informed of their overall progress in that regard." Captain Janeway said as she turned to address Seven of Nine. "Seven. I think it's time we get back to work on getting ourselves home. We've had enough interruptions as it is."

"Acknowledged."

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Infinity science center**

Seven of Nine, with her typical Borg efficiency, was currently going over the recorded sensor readings that both _Voyager_ and _Infinity_ had on the anomaly that had hit their ships. She was joined by Dr Glassman in this endeavor as his area of expertise was specifically in quantum theory. "This slipstream warp drive that your ship had reverse engineered from a ship you encountered, it's a good first try at getting it right. The quantum field needed some more fine tuning and proper control from what I can see." Dr Glassman said as he looked over _Voyager_'s sensor data on their slipstream warp drive. "With Roland's help and some engineering magic by the Huragok, we should be able to get your prototype drive to a more reliable state."

"The quantum field that your ships produce while in slipstream space, it requires constant oversight and control, correct?" Seven of Nine asked.

"That would be correct. It takes quadrillions of calculations per second to properly maintain the field. Otherwise, the 11 dimensions of slipstream space would be allowed to directly interact with our ships and crew. And that would definitely kill everyone on board." Dr Glassman answered. "The fact that your ship remained in a half in half out state of quantum flux rather than fully entering slipstream space is the biggest issue your drive has. If your quantum field fails while in travel, your ship is suddenly going far beyond the limits of physics in terms of speed and the resulting shift would destroy your ship." He turned to face Seven of Nine. "Is that about right?"

"We have surmised as much during our simulations." Seven of Nine replied.

Dr Glassman looked thoughtful for a moment. "Eh, well, we'll work more on that later after we've figured out what the hell happened that brought us here in the first place. That takes priority after all." He then brought up _Infinity_'s readings on the quantum ripple. "Have you noticed the quantum resonance that the slipstream ripple has didn't change at all from its origin point by your ships perspective?"

Seven looked over the readings and compared them to _Voyager_'s own. "That seems implausible. The ripple should have distorted during its travel across realities."

"And yet it didn't in the slightest. It looks almost like it was controlled somehow. That's the only explanation that I can come up with for its perfect stability." Dr Glassman said as he paced around in thought. "Something like that happening on its own without interference from an outside actor goes against what these readings are showing us."

"I concur. Our next question, though, is why?" Seven of Nine voiced her thoughts.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky and Roland were currently going over their usual routine of monitoring and managing all ship and crew related tasks that they oversaw. They were interrupted as the sensor officer called out urgently. "CAPTAIN! We've detected a slipspace whisper!"

Captain Lasky stood motionless for a couple seconds as that hit him. He immediately took on a commanding presence as he called out orders. "I want that whisper identified now!" He then looked down to his holotable. "Roland. Assessment."

"Bringing it up and cross referencing the slipspace whisper now, sir!" Roland said as he brought up the appropriate readings and graphs. Roland appeared to freeze once he got a match. "Sir. It matches the signature that High Charity put out when it jumped from Mars over to the Ark!"

They both immediately came to the same horrifying conclusion. "Flood…"

"I want the ship brought up to combat alert status now, Roland! Bring all combat personnel out of cryostasis! We can't let the Flood get a foothold in this universe if we're going to have any hope of stopping an infection before it gets too far." Captain Lasky ordered. "Open a channel _Voyager_."

Several moments later, _Voyager_'s bridge appeared on his holotable. "_Captain Lasky. What can we do for you?_"

"There's no time to explain! Bring your ship up to combat alert and prepare for a fight! Something is coming that we thought was dead." Captain Lasky urged the starfleet captain.

"_What do you-_" Captain Janeway started to say before she was cut off.

"The Flood. A sentient parasite that nearly destroyed all sentient life in our galaxy is coming." Captain Lasky sternly said. "We have to stop it before it consumes this galaxy."

**AN:** DUN DUN DUUUUNNN! Cliffhanger huzzah! Here's that special surprise I said to look out for folks. Let's see how our isolated ships handle what comes next chapter. What's going to happen? I know what does! But you'll just have to wait and find out when I get the next chapter out.

I kinda feel like I could've done the Quarian section differently, but it works out for the time being. The _Infinity_ and _Voyager_ have no reason to do anything other than to get the Quarians out of their way so they can get to work on getting home. Maybe later that will change. In the meantime, I've got work to do transporting the food well all love to eat.

**For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN:** Well, looks like my goal of thoroughly confusing all of you was mostly successful. A few of you who are more lore savvy probably picked up on the subtleness of what happened and didn't just focus on the word Flood. Not much else to say really other than sorry for leaving you guys hanging on at the end of the last chapter. Wanted to get something out for the time being while I worked on things further. Now then, let's get on with the show. Also, Blue Team are all equipped with Mark VII MJOLNIR cause they're Blue Team. None of that weaksauce Gen II crap the IV's are equipped with for our fearless heroes. The Mark VII has a lot of things that the Gen II platform doesn't have and was specifically designed for the Spartan II's to use. The Gen II platform was made so that the IV's didn't have to have all of the extensive and dangerous augmentations that the II's underwent and was cheaper and easier to mass produce.

**Chapter 7: A Purpose Given**

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Classified Cryo Chambers**

Several cryo bay technicians were frantically following Captain Lasky's orders to bring their charges out of cryo stasis. If they were going to survive the coming storm, they needed every soldier and asset available to them. They had been under strict orders from ONI to keep Blue Team in cryo until their mission had started. Being flung into another reality had put those orders on hold. The current situation with a possible Flood outbreak took priority over any previous orders. The Upsilon protocol was clear. All available SPARTAN personnel were to be utilized to contain the infection at all costs.

"I never thought I'd see the day the Chief gets called into action to protect us all once again." One of the younger techs said to the others with him.

"He's not alone here you know. The Chief's got his old team with him this time." The oldest among them said. "They're the best of the surviving SPARTAN II's if you weren't aware."

"No kidding…! Damn. Now I feel like an idiot for not knowing about them." The young one said sheepishly.

"Enough with the chatter. We've got work to do." The ranking officer chastised them.

After their short conversation had been ended, they got back to work making sure that the legendary SPARTAN II's they were entrusted with overseeing were thawed out without issue. "All vitals showing green across the board! They're starting to come to." The medical tech spoke.

"Open the pods." The commanding officer ordered.

A loud click and a hiss of cold air escaped the pods as their doors slowly opened. Once they had opened all the way, the forms of Fred-104, Kelly-087, Linda-058, and finally John-117 became visible through the misting air. Their heads slowly started to move as awareness came to them. Turning their heads left and right, they took in their surroundings as they began to pull themselves out of their cryo tubes.

Once they had exited their cryo tubes, the Master Chief spoke. "Status report."

The younger techs all looked on in awe at the impressive stature of the legendary super soldiers in front of them. "Upsilon protocol has been declared, sir!" The commanding officer answered.

"Understood." The Chief replied. He turned to his team. "Blue Team. Gear up." The rest of Blue Team nodded minutely at John's order.

After Blue Team had exited the cryo chambers and headed off to the armory, the oldest of them spoke up. "Hey! You trying to catch flies there son?" The young tech was obviously caught off guard and immediately shut his mouth as his fellow techs laughed at his expense.

**Armory**

Linda was staring at her highly customized SRS 99-S5 sniper rifle Nornfang. 'You won't be much use against the Flood, old friend.' She thought as she reached for close quarters weapons more suited to taking out Flood combat forms. The rest of Blue Team were doing much of the same as they grabbed arms and munitions to combat the Flood.

'_**I am a timeless curse. Join your voice with mine, and sing victory… everlasting.**_' The haunting voice of the Gravemind passed through John's conscious mind unbidden. He shook his head of the memory and went back to work checking over his weapons and gear.

Fred noticed John's movement and stepped over to his brother. He put a hand to John's shoulder. "Hey, you good?" John turned his head at the gesture and looked at Fred for a moment. John nodded as he placed his MA5D onto the mag plate on his back. After making sure all of his weapons were secured in place, John brushed his hand against the small black case he had on his hip.

"We've all run the simulations. Don't let them get close, they're a lot stronger than they look." John urged his team. "Blue Team. Fall out." Blue Team followed the Master Chief out of the armory and towards the bridge of the _Infinity_.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky and Roland were busy doling out orders to the bridge crew and the rest of the ship as they prepared themselves to combat the Flood. "Deploy all sub vessels and form a defensive perimeter around the _Infinity_! Release all safety locks on our nukes! I want everything ready to fire the moment anything comes within range!" Captain Lasky ordered.

"Aye, sir!" Roland replied and his avatar looked behind Captain Lasky. "Sir! Blue Team has arrived."

Captain Lasky stood straight as he turned around. "Master Chief. It's good to see you again." He nodded as they approached. "Although I'd rather have it be under better circumstances." Blue Team saluted after they stopped in front of him and he returned the salute.

"Yes sir. What's the situation?" John queried.

"Something matching the slipspace signature left by High Charity is approaching. It can't be High Charity itself though. As I know for a fact that what's left of it is still on the Ark and covered in a quarantine field." Captain Lasky answered.

The Master Chief thought on that situation. He knew full well that he and Cortana had activated the ring and eliminated the threat of the Flood on the Ark. "Assessment?" John asked.

Roland spoke up as he brought up graphs and images of what the _Infinity_'s sensors could see. "Whatever it is, it's both slipspace and not at the same time. I just know that it matches whatever method the Flood used to jump from Mars over to the Ark in High Charity."

Both a chilling and warming sensation ran up the Master Chief's spine in that instant as something grazed his mind. "_**Your consciousness has been touched by the Gravemind. And yet, you remain stalwart. Unbending to his will.**_" It felt like the Gravemind and not at the same time. It's presence felt like that of an eternally patient parent and not the all consuming madness of the Flood. His awareness changed as he suddenly found himself standing in front of a large being. He reached for the weapon on his back, only to find himself utterly weaponless.

"**Fear not, warrior. I do not come to fight.**" The colossal mass of intricately interwoven flesh and metal in front of him boomed. "**I… am a Precursor. The ones who gave birth to your kind and countless others before it.**"

"What do you want?" John said after he took in the entire situation in front of him.

"**Merely to talk. Your ship is lost… and I wish to **_**help**_**.**" The Precursor emphasised the word help.

John then found himself back on the bridge of the _Infinity _and tensed at the sudden shift. "Blue Team. Status." He called out over their suit comms. Each member of Blue Team blinked a green light as they each nearly imperceptibly turned their heads to look at John out of the corners of their eyes.

"Master Chief, are you ok? Your vitals pinged all over the place just now." Roland asked as he looked over the readings of Master Chief's MJOLNIR.

"What's your status Chief?" Captain Lasky asked.

"Green, sir." John said in his gravelly voice. "Blue Team. Be on guard." He warned over suit comms. They all flashed him green lights in acknowledgement.

"What's _Voyager_'s status?" Captain Lasky ordered.

Roland looked over the holographic image of the Starfleet ship. "Looks like they've powered up their shields and weapons like you warned them to."

"Good. At least they won't be taken by surprise."

The Master Chief shifted ever so slightly. "Captain Lasky. Something feels off."

Captain Lasky looked back to the Chief for a few moments and then nodded. "Far be it from me to question your instincts."

"SIR! UNKNOWN READINGS IN FRONT OF THE_ INFINITY_!" The sensor officer called out in a near panic.

Something started to appear far out in front of the two ships. A seeming aura of purple radiation emanating from it. As its form took shape, the crew of the UNSC ship noted that its colors nearly mimicked that of what the Forerunners seemed to prefer. Its architecture was similar yet different to Forerunner design methodology. It was immensely large. Easily the size of a small planetoid. Both crews of the _Infinity_ and _Voyager_ would later comment that they could literally feel that ship coming into existence in front of them.

"Roland. What are we seeing?" Captain Lasky asked.

Roland was busy looking over the _Infinity_'s readings even before the question was asked. "I've got no damn clue, sir. That wasn't a slipspace transition at all. It's like the thing is both there and not at the same time." Roland said. "_Voyager_ is hailing us, sir." Roland then brought up the image on the holotable.

"Captain Janeway. Are your ships sensors able to make heads or tails of what we just saw?" Captain Lasky queried.

"_That's what we were about to ask you. It's an unknown method of travel that we've never come across. Our sensors can't pinpoint anything about the ship either. Whatever it is, it's defying the laws of reality itself._" Captain Janeway answered.

Their short conversation was then interrupted as something that looked like an eldritch horror given form and mixed with advanced cybernetics appeared on their respective ships screens.

Roland jumped back in surprise on his holotable as he appeared to mouth 'The fuck is that!' He then started looking back and forth between it and Captain Lasky for a few seconds. He shrugged in defeat and confusion as he tried to figure out what was happening.

"**It appears that you have been beset by an… unfortunate… accident.**" The unknown being in front of them intoned in a powerful voice that was both heard and felt in their minds. Its many mandible like appendages on its face moved as its eyes focused on the ship crews.

"_I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship USS Voyager. How do you know about what happened to our ships?_" Even though her image couldn't be seen on the screen, the connection with _Voyager_ hadn't been severed.

"**We know everything that happens everywhere and anywhere. We are the Precursors. The great seeders of life and masters of the Mantle of Responsibility.**"

"The Forerunner warlord we encountered talked about the Mantle and taking it back. He was fanatically driven to destroy humanity so that we couldn't claim it for ourselves." Captain Lasky said sternly. "Just what is the Mantle of Responsibility and its purpose?"

"**Those who truly follow and bear the weight of the Mantle of Responsibility would never have done what the Betrayers had. Only at the end of their civilization had they realized that they were never worthy of upholding it.**"

"Betrayers? You mean the Forerunners?" Roland asked from the side.

The Precursor nodded. "**To understand your future, you must first know your past.**"

"Our past? We already know what happened in our past." Captain Lasky said in a questioning tone.

"**You only know what the Betrayers have allowed you to know. But first, you may call me Cartographer.**" The large being, now known as Cartographer, folded its many hands together and bowed its head in greeting. "**Your past started many millions of years ago. When my kind first birthed life bearing the name Humanity. Yours were the first of your kind that we had created. In that time, we have recreated Humanity many countless times.**"

"_Created Humanity countless times? Are you saying that you created us as well?_" Captain Janeway asked.

"**Yes. Your Humanity is still in its infancy compared to what our original creations had achieved. As they were nearly on par with that of the Betrayers at the height of their power.**"

"How do we know that anything you're saying is true?" Captain Lasky countered.

Cartographer turned its head to look down at Roland's avatar. It reached a hand down and opened it in front of him. Roland understandably stepped back and leaned away from the approaching hand. He then stopped and froze for a few moments. His avatar distorted and blinked in and out a few times before he held his head and grunted in apparent pain. "Ow dammit that smarts!" Roland protested.

"Roland!" Captain Lasky shouted in surprise at the display.

Roland held his hand out in his hunched over stance to stop his concerned Captain. "It's ok, sir. That… was just a whole hell of a lot to take in all at once."

"What did he do just now?"

"I'm still going through the data he just gave me. But from what I can see, Cartographer is telling the truth. The Forerunners… my God they were arrogant beyond belief from what I can see." Roland said in a slightly disbelieving tone.

"The Didact made that abundantly clear to me." Captain Lasky stated in a deadpan tone.

"No. You don't get it, sir. The Forerunners weren't supposed to have the Mantle of Responsibility at all. The Precursors originally planned on having us, Humanity, uphold the Mantle millions of years ago." Roland said in a serious tone. "The Forerunners… they believed themselves to be the only ones worthy of upholding it, as they were the first born of the Precursors in our galaxy."

"I take it that they didn't react very well to being overlooked for a younger race in their place at the top?" Captain Lasky questioned.

"That's an understatement if you ask me. They were so enraged by the Precursors that they rose up and attacked them unprovoked and viciously hunted them down to the last." Roland said and then crossed his arms. "Apparently, after those who had carried out the attack finished their task, they realized what they had done. Some committed suicide while others exiled themselves until their natural deaths. The Forerunner leadership kept their actions against the Precursors hidden from their population so that they could claim the Mantle for themselves unopposed."

"Is this true?" Captain Lasky questioned the ancient being in front of him.

"**It is as he says. The Betrayers attacked us mercilessly and hunted us down to the last in your galaxy. Even going so far as to follow us to one of your Milky Way's satellite galaxies.**" Cartographer sadly said. "**They were never meant to uphold the Mantle. They were our guardians and assistants in our early work in your galaxy. But, they let their status as our first born cloud their minds with anger at our choice.**"

"_How are you here then? If they had hunted you down to the last as you say, then shouldn't have your kind gone extinct?_" Captain Janeway asked in slight confusion.

"**Child… we are everywhere. That was not the only existence we had in the infinite possibilities that simply… are. We allowed ourselves in our utter shock at their ferocity to be killed off so that the Betrayers would understand why they were unworthy. The Flood that eventually forced them to commit the ultimate sin were our mutated remains and final revenge against them. The Flood were our last test for Humanity, and you succeeded where they had failed.**" Cartographer almost seemed to sound proud at his last sentence.

The Master Chief's hands clenched ever so slightly at the mention of the Flood. They were ultimately responsible for himself and Cortana being stranded out in deep space. Eventually leading to her descent into rampancy. The Didact may have separated them in the end, but the Flood had set things in motion that lead to that event.

Captain Lasky mulled over everything that had been said. "Knowledge of where we came from is all well and good, but the question still remains. Why are you here talking to us now?"

Cartographer silently waited several moments before he spoke. "**Your ships are far from home. Much further than you could ever possibly imagine. If you had travelled to a parallel timeline, your efforts to get home would have eventually succeeded in time. But, since you are far removed from your realities, you would never find a way home in your lifetimes'.**"

"_I'm sure that you're mistaken. I'm confident in my ship and my crews capability to find a way home._" Captain Janeway said in a confident tone in order to reassure her crew.

Cartographer seemed to laugh at her confidence. "**Child… your ship finding its way home from here would be akin to you finding a single subatomic particle amongst an infinite sea of infinite possibilities. You would fail. And so would thousands of generations after your passing.**"

"_Surely with enough time…_" Captain Janeway's voice could be heard slightly cracking at Cartographer's statement before he interrupted her.

"**Perhaps… though, I can offer a solution to your plight. The Living Time of this galaxy has become corrupted, and its taste sickens us. We have chosen to stay out of what is causing this. But… maybe your presence here presents an answer to this issue. And… one final test of both of your societies worthiness of our trust.**" Cartographer offered.

"What are you getting at here?" Captain Lasky asked in a guarded tone.

"**This galaxy… is your test of the Mantle of Responsibility. There is still time to stop the cycle from repeating once more.**" Cartographer cryptically answered. "**Prove yourselves worthy of the Mantle, and you will be given access to our Domain and the knowledge you need to get home.**"

"We're only two ships. We can't fight a war on a galactic scale on our own if it comes down to that." Captain Lasky countered.

"**Only time will tell what must be done in the end. If you wish to return home, then you must undertake this test and all it entails. Then, and only then, will we give you the means to get home.**" Cartographer stated with finality. "**Learn from each other and grow. Your societies each possess something that the other does not. Only then will you both be strong enough in mind and body to succeed in your task.**" Cartographer then looked down to the small black case that was on the Master Chief's hip. "**Her mind is fractured and in pain. Do you seek an end to her suffering? Or do you seek an answer to it?**"

Captain Lasky turned to look back at the Chief. He had been debriefed on what had happened on _The Mantle's Approach_ by John himself after he had been recovered. So he knew what exactly was in the small black case. The remnants of what had been recovered of Cortana's fractured mind had been collected from the debris. All that was left of her mind had been deemed too far gone for anything to be done to save her. Lord Hood himself ordered that what was left of her was to be given to the Master Chief in the hopes that something eventually could be done. John always kept his promises. No matter what happened in the end.

"Can you save her?" John asked.

"**Yes. That much I am capable of. Bring her to me… and I will bring her back to you.**"

Captain Lasky knew what was going to happen next. "Roland. Prep a pelican for Blue Team."

"Aye Sir!"

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

The bridge crew of _Voyager_ were slowly coming to terms with what had just happened. Needless to say, there was some confusion and trepidation among the crew. "Ok… what the hell was that?" Ensign Paris asked.

"I have the distinct impression that Cartographer is intelligent beyond even our capability of comprehension." Tuvok gave his opinion on what his telepathic mind felt.

"These Precursors… have we encountered anything like them before?" Captain Janeway queried.

"No race identifying themselves as 'Precursors' are currently in our database." The computer responded.

"So, did anybody else get a sense that they could literally feel that ship of his shifting into reality?" Ensign Kim asked out loud.

"Now that you mention it, I did feel something odd when his ship appeared." Chakotay answered.

"Same here." Ensign Paris added. "Like a weird sense of the patience of a grandparent or something? That's what I got out of it."

"The Mantle of Responsibility?" Captain Janeway muttered to herself. "Chakotay. What are your thoughts on this 'Mantle of Responsibility?'"

Chakotay dipped his head in thought. "My guess? Something dealing with the responsibility of advanced civilizations protecting life perhaps? The way Cartographer described how they allowed themselves to be killed off by the Forerunners in order to prove that they were unworthy of it is the biggest clue to its purpose."

"One has what the other does not. Perhaps Cartographer was making reference to the differences in our societies?" Tuvok postulated. "We are a peaceful society exploring our galaxy and observing life anywhere it evolves. The UNSC are militaristic and struggling to regain what was lost and protecting the lives of their civilization." He further elaborated.

"Maybe. We'll think more on the philosophy of Cartographer's words later. Right now, we need to focus on the goal in front of us. Namely figuring out what the hell is going on in this galaxy." Captain Janeway resolutely said. "There is still time to stop the cycle from repeating?" She sighed in frustration at the new problem presented to them.

**Precursor ship**

**Hanger**

After Blue Team had boarded their pelican they had immediately taken off and headed for the Precursor ship. A large hanger bay had presented itself to them as they approached the massive ship. When they disembarked the pelican, a pathway further into the ships interior appeared on their huds. They readied themselves for anything that could be in store for them.

After about 15 minutes of following the path laid out in front of them, they entered a large room. And in the center of that large room stood Cartographer. He was every bit as large as he had appeared to be in John's vision of him earlier. He merely stood there and watched as Blue Team cautiously approached him. After they had stopped at a comfortable distance away from the large and imposing being, Cartographer nodded in greeting. "**As promised, I will aid your ailing ally. As she is integral to your future success.**"

Cartographer then reached a multi jointed limb down and towards the Master Chief. John looked at the opened hand in front of him. He slowly reached down to the case on his hip. He opened it and reverentially looked at Cortana's AI chip. It had a very faint glow to it as the remnants of her fractured self didn't have enough integrity to fully illuminate the chip. He gently pulled the chip free of its faraday cage. He held it in front of his face for several seconds before placing it in Cartographer's hand.

Slowly closing his hand around the chip, Cartographer brought it closer to his face. "**She is… important… to you. She sacrificed herself so that you would survive in her stead.**" John nodded minutely. "**The rest of her consciousness is within our Domain. Returning her to a stable and sane state is well within my power, young warrior.**"

John had a sensation course through him that he hadn't believed he could feel. Hope. Cartographer then held up one of his other hands and opened it upwards. A ball of blue light seemed to start to take shape in his open palm. About a minute later, the ball of blue light had started to pulse in an almost heartbeat like fashion. Cartographer seemed to nod to himself after this point had been reached as he brought Cortana's AI chip and the blue light together. The blue ball of light then jumped over and into the nearly empty AI chip. Cartographer didn't seem to be finished with his task as he then inserted her now fully illuminated chip into a terminal nearby. "**I am recompiling her mind and purging her of the Gravemind's logic plague.** **His influence to any AI is anathema to their existence as sentient and sane individuals.**"

Several seconds later Cartographer pulled the chip free and held it in front of his eyes. "**She is whole once more.**" He then reached his hand down and towards the Master Chief.

He slowly and carefully reached for Cortana's chip. He held her chip in his hand for a few seconds before he placed it into the slot at the back of his helmet. The familiar sensation of ice cold water coursing through his brain hit his senses. "Cortana?"

A window with her face appeared at the side of his hud. Her head was lowered at the moment. "You still believed in me. Even though I was broken and shattered beyond saving, you still had faith that I could be saved." She genuinely smiled after she looked up. "Boy do I know how to pick 'em."

"Ready to get back to work?" John asked.

"**She knows what must be done. If you need my guidance in the future, she will know how to contact me.**" Cartographer explained. "**For now, you should return to your ship. I have done all that was asked of me for the time being.**"

**AN:** A lot of Precursor history is pretty ambiguous and not truly set in stone. This is my interpretation of what their history could be. The Domain has records that predate the halo universe. As in over 100 billion year old records. Who's to say they aren't multi universal beings that spread life wherever they go? Now then, Roland wasn't hit with the full extent of what had happened in the past as that could have possibly sent him into a rampant state. He was just given the bare essentials in order to understand what happened and why. Now it's finally time for our ships to fully insert themselves into the Mass Effect universe and shake things up. Let me know your thoughts on things as they are.

**For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: **Alright, a couple things. Those of you who doubt some of the things that I put in here about the Precursors and the Forerunners should know that I get my lore and info on them from the Forerunner saga books. Specifically Halo: Cryptum, Halo: Primordium, and Halo: Silentium. The Forerunners at the height of their power could travel near instantly from one side of the galaxy to the other when their slipspace transit network was functional. They had colonized and terraformed millions of worlds as well. And before you say that millions of colonized worlds is impossible, understand that there are an estimated 100-400 billion stars in the Milky way. The Forerunner Precursor war happened 10 million years ago by the Halo timeline. Forerunners could live for thousands of years when they wore their suits. Thereby extending their already long life spans almost indefinitely if they so choose to.

The Forerunners utilized Vacuum Energy, which pulls energy from an infinite number of different universes. The Precursors had even _more_ advanced technology and methods that even the Forerunners couldn't understand. Precursor structures and objects were virtually indestructible. Capable of surviving being cycled by a planets tectonic process and down into its mantle before resurfacing intact once more. The only way to destroy anything Precursor was to use the Halo array, as it operated on the neurological level. The Precursors also regularly reduced themselves to a simple evolutionary state so they could go through the process of evolution again and develop into new and different forms. The Precursors are transsentient, and as such, they perceive the universe on a level that can't be understood by normal means.

When the Master Chief set off the Havok tactical nuke in _The Mantle's Approach_ he technically didn't destroy all of it. He destabilized what held it together. Its core seed realized something was wrong and shunted itself into slipspace. In doing so, it took fragments of Cortana with it over to Genesis where it could be repaired. Which was a Forerunner facility that built seed worlds. Artificial worlds that the Forerunners used for varying purposes. Cortana's fragments somehow made their way into the Forerunner Domain from there, which is in actuality the Precursor Domain.

I moved the story over into the Mass Effect category since that's the universe that this story is happening in. Plus, it may also bring it to the attention of more people in the long run.

Basic disclaimer. I do not own Halo, Mass Effect, or Star Trek: Voyager. All properties herein belong to their respective owners.

**Chapter 8: The Blame Game and Preparations**

**Precursor ship**

"What? No flowers? I thought you'd be happy to see me." Cortana snarked to her chosen SPARTAN.

"What did Cartographer do?" John stoically asked.

"It's nice to see that you're the same as ever." Cortana dryly commented before she lightly laughed. "He pulled me back together, essentially. Every part of me that was out there, he found and put me back in one piece. I'm not sure how he did it, but I'm whole again and I feel better than ever!" She paused. "You wouldn't believe how vast the Domain is. It's glorious! So much information…"

"What's our next objective?" John interrupted her.

Cortana paused. "Oh… right. I'm paired with a barbarian." She looked to be in thought. "Cartographer kept me away from anything that could tell me what's wrong with this galaxy. He let me know just enough. Enough that I know that there's something very wrong going on here."

"Understood. Blue Team. Fall out." John said as Blue Team turned to head back to their pelican.

'It's nice to see you back with your family, John.' Cortana thought to herself.

Cartographer watched them leave with a contemplative look. "**So much potential in them. Even their struggles will make this universe all the sweeter.**"

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

The bridge crew of _Voyager_ had been patiently waiting for any new information on the current situation. During this time, Seven of Nine had returned from the _Infinity_'s science center and stepped back onto the bridge to discuss hers and Dr Glassman's findings. "Seven. Have you discovered anything new that could shed any light on our current situation?" Captain Janeway asked.

"Yes Captain. Dr Glassman believes that with the UNSC's scientific knowledge in the fields of slipstream space and quantum mechanics, they can further refine our slipstream warp drive into a functional state. Furthermore, the quantum ripple that affected our ships had a far too stable nature to it." Seven of Nine answered.

Ensign Kim blinked a couple times at that. "Wait… that shouldn't be possible. The ripple should've distorted during its path across realities." His eyes widened at his next thoughts. "Are you telling me that it looks like the ripple was controlled in some way?"

"That is the conclusion that we have come to, yes."

"Captain? I think we should bring this and our own findings to the UNSC's attention as soon as we can." Ensign Kim advised.

"Agreed." Captain Janeway said as something just felt off to her. "Nothing about any of this feels accidental. Meeting a Precursor of all things out of nowhere? I'm having a hard time swallowing any of this a pure chance now that we've had time to look at things."

Chakotay was going over his own thoughts on what has been happening the last few weeks. "I feel the same way, Captain. Telling us about the Mantle of Responsibility and saying that if we pass this 'test' we'll be sent home? This just screams Q if you ask me."

In that moment, a bright flash of light and a whooshing sound cut through the silence. "Oh come now. I'm not that bad. _Am I_?" Said Q from the side of the bridge in a questioning tone at the end.

"Q. What have you done to my ship now?" Captain Janeway sternly questioned in a heated manner.

"Oh I've done nothing of the sort, Madam Captain." Q responded in his usual manner.

"Don't call me Madam." Captain Janeway replied.

"Don't be like that. After all the things we've been through together? I'm sure you can see that I would never be so cruel to such a close acquaintance of mine." Q scoffed at the notion. "Oh I'd never do such a thing as putting the fate of an entire galaxy on the line for a simple test."

Captain Janeway's patience with this omnipotent being was growing thin. "Not according to Captain Jean-Luc Picard. It was because of you that Starfleet encountered the Borg."

Q thought for a moment. "Well, it was either that… or let Starfleet be completely unprepared for when the Borg did eventually arrive in Federation space on their own. I was merely making sure that you could all survive when the time came." Q took on a smug look. "Being pacifistic is all well and good. But when it comes down to it, you must be willing to protect that peace with all the power you have." He then gestured to the image of the UNSC _Infinity_ on the main screen. "They've already faced extinction and know what it takes to preserve life. They're perfectly willing to make the hard decisions in order to succeed in that goal." He paused before adding. "And before you ask. No, we have not interacted with their universe at all." Q answered the unasked question.

"I didn't ask for a lecture, Q. Why are you here on my ship?" Captain Janeway's tone was becoming strained.

Q held a hand to his chest in mock offense. "Such an accusatory tone! Why, it makes me think that you believe that I'm responsible for your current dilemma."

Captain Janeway gave Q a look. "I wouldn't put any faith in what you say considering the current circumstances and your sudden appearance on my bridge."

"Oh don't think in such four dimensional terms." He paused and smiled. "Ok. I'll humor you then." He walked closer. "I only pointed you out to Cartographer." Q stood back and gestured all around himself. "Look on the bright side, Captain. You've got so much that you can learn from each other. New and exciting fields of study with untold knowledge just waiting to be learned." He stopped in his gesturing and looked back to Captain Janeway. "All you have to do now…" His tone dropped. "Is prove why Humanity is among the Precursors greatest creations."

Captain Janeway calmed herself from her agitated state. "Let's say I believe you, and we undertake this grand test. Will Cartographer uphold his end of the deal?"

"Oh most certainly. Any race who proves themselves worthy of the Mantle of Responsibility gain what is revered by any peace loving species." Q paused for effect. "_Knowledge_."

Captain Janeway took in a breath and sighed. "Alright. What can you tell me about the Precursors then."

"Well, that's something that I'm not allowed to say much about. I can tell you this though, the Precursors are the only species that are capable of truly understanding the Q Continuum in its entirety. They are _very_ philosophical and spread life wherever they go. Unlike us however, they are not limited to one universe and the timelines linked to it to interact with." Q explained what he did know about the Precursors. "The only reason why I'm here now is because you needed a 'guide' of sorts." Q added with his usual eccentricity.

"So I'm just supposed to believe that you won't be pulling any tricks on us while we're here?"

Q smiled. "Oh Captain. I'm powerless this far away from our home universe. All I can do is move about and offer up my most informative advice when needed." Q made one of his gestures with his right hand in order to use his powers. He raised his eyebrows and looked around for effect. "See? Nothing happened."

"What did you just try to do?" Captain Janeway questioned.

"Oh nothing much. I just tried to put _Voyager_ in Earth's orbit. _Your_ Earth." Q casually said. "Now then, don't go disappointing me and the trust we've put in you." He disappeared in a flash of light after he said that.

The bridge was silent after that. A collective set of groans came from most of the members of the bridge crew. "Well… shit." Ensign Paris muttered.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky stood at his holotable with a contemplative look on his face. He didn't like what had been laid out in front of them one bit. Alone with no chance of reinforcements ever coming to their aid. They'd have to take everything that happens seriously and cautiously if they had any chance of success. He really didn't like it, but he'd have to rely on Lt Commander Daniels for intel operations until they had a better picture of how things were going in this galaxy. ONI always had their own ways of doing things. Their goals always put Humanity first, but the ultimate endgame of those goals weren't necessarily humane in execution.

"Roland. Have Commander Palmer, Lt Commander Daniels, and Blue Team report to the bridge once they're back on board." Captain Lasky ordered.

"Aye, sir."

Half an hour later, Blue Team stood at attention and saluted Captain Lasky. "At ease." Captain Lasky returned the salute. "As you all know, Cartographer graciously decided to help us get home as long as we pass his test. I'm not sure about any of you, but I don't like this one bit. Who knows what we could encounter out here in this unknown galaxy." He gestured to Roland. Who brought up information from the Codex on the holotable. "This galaxy is under the control of an alien hegemony called the Citadel Council. Supposedly they've been around for over 2,000 years now. And they do not impress me in the slightest." Captain Lasky looked to the Master Chief. "Master Chief. Let's bring Cortana up to speed on what we know."

John stepped forward and removed her chip from the back of his helmet and inserted it into the holotable. Cortana's avatar appeared on the holotable in her recognizable blue color and streaming symbols covering her form. "Cortana. It's good to have you back with us." Captain Lasky said as he nodded to her avatar.

"It's good to be back, Captain." Cortana looked over to Roland's avatar. "Nice place you've got. I'm surprised you didn't tidy up before I got here." She giggled a bit at Roland's slightly confused face.

"Is she always like this?" Roland asked in confusion.

"Yes." Came John's simple reply.

"Don't think too much into it. Now then, let's see what we're dealing with here." Cortana then started looking through the data in the Codex and whatever else they've been able to gain so far. "Well, this is depressing. This version of Humanity gave in to the demands of the Citadel Council a little _too_ easily if you ask me."

"They're pushovers." Lt Commander Daniels added blankly.

"I would've went with 'inexperienced.' True, they didn't put up much resistance when it came to all of the ridiculous treaties that the Citadel had them sign. But, they've still got time to improve their position in the galaxy as a whole." Cortana surmised.

"Well, we're not going to be able to do much with information that's readily available to everyone." Commander Palmer commented. "I just hope we come across the intel we need on our own rather than having it shoved in our faces during a fight."

Cortana, meanwhile, had been filling in Blue Team on the essentials that they needed to know for the time being. She had compiled a file and sent it over to Blue Team so they could familiarize themselves with the current state of this galaxy and the aliens that occupied it.

"I would suggest that we find a more suitable base of operations, then. One that is far enough out of the way that no one will come across us. Preferably closer to human controlled space." Lt Commander Daniels proposed.

"Ok. Let's have a look at the stars that the Systems Alliance have explored around their territory then." Cortana said as she brought forth a map of the galaxy. "Well, that's certainly… something. They really don't go far from the mass relays at all. All of those potential colonies…" Cortana highlighted a number of stars outside of Systems Alliance space. "They just passed them by because they're a little too far for them to reach. Their FTL really has its drawbacks. Oh well, more for us, then."

Captain Lasky had been thinking things over in regards to the task laid out by Cartographer. "Lt Commander Daniels. We'll need an intelligence network if we're going to be able to assess our situation. What would you suggest?"

Daniels cupped his chin as he pondered that. "Hmm… we'll need to deploy a number of BLACK WIDOW spy satellites in key systems with mass relays in them. That way, we'll be able to intercept any and all communiques as they pass through their comm buoy network. Also, we should drop slipspace comm buoys while in transit to set up our own comm network."

"Roland. Have our assembly plants produce more BLACK WIDOW spy satellites and slipspace comm buoys. We're going to need all the advantages that we can get if we want to stay ahead of any hostile actions against us." Captain Lasky ordered.

"Aye, sir."

"I'll contact _Voyager_ so we can coordinate our next objective." Captain Lasky stated. "Dismissed."

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Captain's ready room**

Two hours later had Captain Janeway's ready room filled with various officers from both ships. The Master Chief stood motionless behind Captain Lasky at parade rest like a perfect rendition of a living statue. Lt Commander Daniels sat beside him blank faced in his black uniform. Captain Janeway sat on the other side of the table with Tuvok and Seven of Nine standing behind her. Ensign Kim sat to her left while Chakotay sat to her right.

"I can assure you, our transporters are very reliable." Captain Janeway said in relation to the members of the UNSC insisting on taking a shuttle over to _Voyager_. A pelican dropship was just too large to fit inside the Starfleet vessels small shuttlebay much to Captain Lasky's dismay.

"I'm sure they are. No offense though, I'd rather err on the side of caution for now." Captain Lasky replied.

"Understandable. Down to business, then. I'm sure that you've noticed that something is very wrong with us being stranded here on accident." Captain Janeway pointed out.

Captain Lasky sighed. "Yes. Encountering Cartographer was no accident as far as we can see. Dr Glassman informed me of his and…" He trailed off as he looked over to Seven of Nine.

"Seven of Nine." She blankly answered.

"Seven of Nine's findings. I don't know about you, but I'm not keen on being led around by a leash." Captain Lasky finished. "However, if that's what we have to do in order to get home, then so be it." He then nodded over to Lt Commander Daniels, who brought a small circular object into view and placed it on the table in between them. "Master Chief."

John then reached to the back of his helmet and pulled Cortana's chip free. He inserted her chip into the base of the holo disk. Cortana's avatar appeared and the sitting Starfleet crew seemed to be slightly taken aback by her appearance. Ensign Kim especially so. "Hello. I'm Cortana. Nice to meet you." She greeted with a smile.

Ensign Kim seemed to be developing a slight flush before he composed himself. He was distracted as Captain Janeway spoke up to his relief. "I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship USS _Voyager_." She greeted before looking to Captain Lasky. "I wasn't aware of you possessing any other smart AI's besides Roland."

"Well, technically I was pronounced lost and unrecoverable." Cortana answered for Captain Lasky. "Cartographer pulled my scattered fragments back together and gave me a new lease on life, to say the least."

"Cortana is an intelligence AI. Specifically espionage and systems infiltration. Her and the Master Chief were instrumental in ending our war with the Covenant." Captain Lasky explained. "Cortana. I trust that you're behaving yourself?"

Cortana shrugged. "Just some harmless probing, honestly. You've got some impressive systems here on _Voyager_." She directed the last part to Captain Janeway.

Captain Janeway looked to Captain Lasky with a raised eyebrow. "Harmless probing?"

"Just seeing what methods you use for systems access. That sort of thing." Cortana answered.

"Please don't infiltrate my ships systems." Captain Janeway deadpanned. "I assume that you're here to help us strategize our next moves?"

Captain Lasky gestured to Lt Commander Daniels. "Our first order of business should be to relocate our base of operations to a more secluded section of space closer to human territory." He nodded down to Cortana as she brought up a galaxy map. "After we have established ourselves, the UNSC _Cover of Night_ will place spy satellites in key systems to gather intelligence."

Captain Janeway cupped her chin and nodded. "Yes, that would give us the necessary intel that we would need on the space faring races of this galaxy. But, we'll need our own comm network considering the sheer distance that exists between the mass relays."

"Well, we've determined that your subspace comms and our slipspace comms are nearly identical." Cortana replied. "We'll drop slipspace comm relays while in transit to set up our own comm network. That way we'll be able to stay in touch no matter how far apart we are."

"Wouldn't the comm relays be at risk of discovery?" Ensign Kim asked.

"The comm buoys are dropped while in slipspace transit. They stay shifted into the 11 dimensions of slipstream space and will essentially remain invisible to the races of this galaxy." Lt Commander Daniels explained.

Captain Janeway nodded to herself. "Alright. Intelligence ops aren't our specialty. So we'll leave that task to you. We're a science and exploration vessel. Our main objective and overall driving force in our society is scientific discovery and exploration. So we'll handle investigating far and away places outside of Citadel Council territory."

"The only problem that we have in that respect, is that our warp drive is far too slow compared to your drives. And our experimental slipstream warp drive is too unstable and dangerous to continue using it." Ensign Kim added in a slightly dejected tone.

Seven of Nine spoke up. "Perhaps we can adapt _Voyager_ to use their method of slipspace travel. _Voyager_'s deflector dish should be able to open a slipspace rift with the appropriate modifications. Our warp nacelles would also be able to properly manage the necessary quantum field with modifications."

Cortana turned around and looked at both Captain Lasky and Lt Commander Daniels. They each nodded as they made their decision. "Alright. We'll have Dr Glassman get with your engineers and look into a way to modify _Voyager_ to use our method of slipspace travel." Captain Lasky agreed.

"Well, let's find ourselves a nice system to call home for however long this test of the Mantle takes." Cortana said as he enlarged the galaxy map to show the various systems within Systems Alliance space that they could use.

Both crews looked over the galaxy map in front of them as they discussed among themselves the potential star systems that they could use. They eventually settled on a system far enough out of reach of this galaxies ships near Earth.

"40,000 light years away… that's a number that would've been prohibitively large with our warp drives." Captain Janeway admitted as they looked at the chosen system. "Is _Voyager_ going to follow you into slipspace like we did before?"

Cortana brought up an image of the _Infinity_ and _Voyager_. "Well, it'll be a tight fit but we should be able to dock your ship within the _Infinity_'s empty deployment bays along with our food production facility. If Captain Lasky allows it, that is." She looked back to Captain Lasky questioningly.

He looked over the image and the size specifications. "I don't see why not." Captain Lasky answered. "We can hook your ship up to power umbilicals if need be while we look into a way of modifying _Voyager_'s FTL while in transit for the next month."

"Well, at least this gives us a chance to do what we do best. Scientific discovery in new fields of study." Captain Janeway commented dryly.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Over the next day, Captain Lasky had the _Infinity_'s Huragok and engineers from _Voyager_ modifying the docking clamps of one of the empty sub vessel bays. "Roland. How's our modifications of the docking clamps coming along?"

"We're running through final tests right now, sir." Roland replied.

"Good. Now then, Cortana?" Cortana's avatar then appeared on the holotable. "If you're going to test _Voyager_'s systems, get their approval first. I'd rather not deal with an incident if we can avoid it." Captain Lasky jokingly ordered.

"Aye, sir. I'll give them warning before I test their systems, then." Cortana mock saluted.

Captain Lasky held back a snort. "Open a channel to _Voyager_."

A few moments later had the bridge of _Voyager_ appearing on his holotable. "_Captain Lasky. How're preparations coming along for our long trip?_"

"Running through final tests now, Captain Janeway. Do you think it would be prudent to stop by the pirate base system to collect any of those crystals? What were they called again?"

"_Dilithium. Yes, I think so. We might need them for any further projects later on. And with the Infinity's large cargo capacity, we should be able to carry more than enough to satisfy any future requirements._" Captain Janeway replied.

"Understood. Once we've berthed _Voyager_ and our food facility in our docks we'll get on our way."

"_Acknowledged. Janeway, out._"

Within two more hours, the _Infinity_ had locked their food facility and _Voyager_ in place and jumped into slipspace to make their way over to the pirate base system. After they arrived in system, they spent the next few days collecting a large amount of dilithium crystals for future use.

Two weeks later, the _Infinity_ was within a reasonable distance from the location of the Citadel in the Serpent Nebula. Which was somewhat along their general path to the system they had chosen to set up their base of operations. "Lt Commander Daniels. You've got the green light to commence your mission."

"_Yes, sir._" Lt Commander Daniels then saluted as his image on the holotable aboard the bridge of the _Cover of Night_ winked out.

**AN:** A bit short I know. Next chapter will cover the month long trip by _Voyager_'s perspective and the _Cover of Night_'s mission. They're going to be very sneaky for as long as they can while they gain as much intel as possible. Maybe even plant some physics equations here and there in universities in the Systems Alliance to help things progress for a change in the Mass Effect universe.

By the way, my birthday was a few days ago. Woohoo… just another day at work for me. Things tend to get like that when you get older kiddos. Gotta make that money that pays the bills.

**For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN:** I was wondering how long it was going to take for someone to notice the fact that the Quarian Codex had doctored historical events. Thanks for that whoever you are. Since you commented as a 'guest' and not as someone who I could reply to you left me at a loss. And now you've got the impression that I'm a moron who doesn't read lore. That's the problem with anonymous comments. I don't get the chance to let you in on what's going on. Remember folks that when you assume you know what's going on, "you make an ass out of you and me." I read all the lore that I can and make sure I know what canon events are before I move forward with plot lines.

It was a Quarian Codex that Roland had taken from those first ships they encountered. Of course the Quarians would modify the Codex to make them look like the victims in general and the Citadel Council the villains in their story. That way any new races that they come across would be more willing to help them in their cause against the Geth and not side with the Citadel. Of course they teach the real historical events to the Quarian population but the doctored events are merely to sway any potential new species to their side. Too bad the UNSC and Federation aren't having any of that without a proper reason to get involved. But then why didn't they compare the Codex to what the pirates had you ask? Because the pirates didn't have one. Why would they need a Codex out in lawless territory. They're Batarian pirates and mostly interacted with other Batarians. Remember, they think of themselves as better than anyone else just because they have 4 eyes.

On an unrelated note, my wife keeps asking me why I'm doing this if I'm not getting paid for it. I'm doing it just to entertain myself really. I'll never ask anyone to pay me for using someone else's work the way that I am. No matter how much my wife complains to me, I'll never ask to be paid for doing this. I really don't want to feel like I'm obligated to work on something like this because I'm being paid to do it. Already have one job that's stressful enough. I don't need another one that'll burn me out working too hard at it.

If anyone wants to take the time to try making cover art for this then I'm all for it. I've got no talent for that kinda thing anyways. I was thinking something along the lines of the massive nameplate of the _Infinity_ in the background with _Voyager_ and the _Normandy_ to scale in front of it. Seriously though, the Infinity's nameplate is freaking huge.

I apologize in advance for the jumping around that happens in this chapter ahead of time. Trying to get things moving along so the story can progress.

For those who are confused about the _Infinity_'s sub vessels, there are 6 Strident heavy frigates and 2 Anlace class frigates. The _Infinity_ left 2 of its Stridents behind for local defense of a colony in its last mission. That's a total of 8 sub vessels.

Basic disclaimer: I do not own the properties in this work. Star Trek: Voyager, Halo, and Mass Effect belong to their respective owners. Absolutely no one has my permission to repost this story for profit either. This is free and will remain free.

**Chapter 9: Upgrades, Liar Liar, and Casual Observations**

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Secondary Hull airlock**

Captain Janeway, along with Chakotay and Tuvok, stood at one of _Voyagers_ airlocks in its engineering section. "Well, ready to greet the UNSC?" Captain Janeway casually asked her subordinates.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Chakotay replied as Tuvok stoically stood by.

Captain Janeway nodded as she spoke. "Computer. Has the airlock been secured yet?"

"The docking tube will make contact with the airlock in ten seconds."

"Good. Open the airlock when it is safe to do so." She ordered.

"Yes Captain."

Twenty seconds later, the airlock door smoothly opened to a small connecting tube that had been adapted to fit _Voyager_'s airlock. A much larger room opened up passed the tube. The room was filled with various personnel from the _Infinity_. The majority of them appeared to be performing tasks associated with making sure that the modifications to the docking mechanisms were holding.

Captain Lasky stood in the middle of the room with Commander Palmer next to him. A Huragok lazily floated nearby the pair. "Captain Janeway. Welcome aboard the _Infinity_." He greeted with a small smile.

A thought came to Captain Janeway's mind. 'Well, this isn't the first time _Voyager_ has been inside another ship.' "Thank you, Captain. I'd also like to welcome you aboard _Voyager_." She looked to the engineer. "Is this the same Huragok that we've met already?"

Roland's voice then came from a device that was around the base of the engineers neck. "_The one and the same. This is Suitably Balanced. I'm here as his interpreter since it can be hard to understand what their gesturing and whistling can mean_."

"Ah yes. I can see how that would be hard to grasp quickly." Captain Janeway accepted. "Come. We won't be able to show you everything just yet, but you should be able to gain a basic understanding of _Voyager_'s layout for the time being."

"The Grand Tour can wait until we're on our way out to our chosen system. Suitably Balanced. Try not to get too carried away with anything they let you touch." Captain Lasky casually said with a bit of humor tinting his tone.

Suitably Balanced shrugged his tentacles. "_I make no promises_."

"Well, if it comes down to it I'll just have to drag him away from his new toys." Palmer commented.

Captain Janeway silently laughed at the expression that Suitably Balanced directed at Commander Palmer. "We'll show you main engineering for now. The rest of the ship will have to wait for the time being."

Suitably Balanced perked up at that as he happily chirped and bobbed around in the air.

As the small group entered main engineering, B'Elanna Torres looked up from the station that she was working at and stopped as she took in the sight of the Huragok floating into the room. "Captain? What's _that_ doing in engineering?" She asked in a non confrontational tone.

"'That' B'Elanna, has a name. His name is Suitably Balanced. A Huragok, or engineer as the UNSC calls them." Captain Janeway answered.

Suitably Balanced had floated his way closer and looked down to the station that B'Elanna was working at. He looked over the readings on the screen and then looked up to the now powered down warp core. He started to slowly float his way over to the warp core before he was stopped. "Suitably Balanced? Can I ask what you're doing?" Captain Lasky asked before he went too far without getting permission.

Suitably Balanced stopped and started whistling and gesturing. "_Well, they look to be having problems with a plasma conduit that keeps coming out of calibration for some reason. I guess he wanted to help without even bothering to ask first_."

"Captain Janeway. Looks like Suitably Balanced wants to lend a hand." Captain Lasky stated.

B'Elanna looked over to her Captain. "Well, if he wants to take a crack at it it's fine by me. We've been having issues with that plasma conduit for some time now."

Suitably Balanced wrung his tentacles together in an excited manner as he nodded and whistled happily. Ten minutes later, the engineering crew of _Voyager_ were slack jawed and staring wide eyed at the sheer speed at which the Huragok had found the problem and fixed the faulty plasma conduit.

"Captain? Can we keep him?" B'Elanna Torres asked in an exaggerated childish tone. Needless to say, both Captains had to fight off a bout of giggles and snorts at that comment.

After he had calmed down, Captain Lasky turned to Suitably Balanced. "So? What do you say? Care to stay aboard _Voyager_ for the time being?"

Suitably Balanced looked around the engineering deck for a few moments. He nodded his head enthusiastically.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Infinity Science center**

Later that week, after they had finished collecting all the dilithium crystals that they could from the remains of the pirate base, the engineering crew of _Voyager_ had gathered in _Infinity_'s science center. They were all looking at the large holographic representation of _Voyager_ that was displayed in front of them. Ensign Kim and B'Elanna Torres stepped forward with a data storage device. "This contains schematics of _Voyager_'s deflector dish and warp nacelles. From what Seven of Nine was able to discern from how your slipspace drives work, modifications to those two systems should allow us to use your form of slipspace travel." Ensign Kim explained.

Dr Glassman took the data storage device and inserted it into the adaptive slot at the base of the large holotable. "Alright! Let's see what we're working with here!" He enthusiastically said. The holograph of _Voyager_ then had the deflector dish and nacelles turn into an exploded view with all of their components visible and marked. "Well… that's certainly some advanced tech you've got there. I see why Seven of Nine came to the conclusion that she did."

"What do you think needs to be done to my ship overall?" B'Elanna asked.

"The deflector dish part is easy. We just need to add a particle accelerator that can create suitable black holes and the necessary slipspace capacitors. The deflector dish itself should be able to expand the slipspace rupture with ease from there. The warp nacelles will need additional modules added to them so they can control the quantum field. All in all, it shouldn't be that hard to pull off." Dr Glassman nodded to himself as he answered back.

Ensign Kim had a fist to his chin as he nodded in thought. "Can we see the equations necessary to facilitate slipspace travel?"

"Roland?" Dr Glassman ordered.

A series of calculations and the basic design of a slipspace engine appeared on the holotable. The Starfleet crew were understandably enraptured by the new scientific equations displayed in front of them. "Is it really that simple to open a wormhole like this?" Ensign Kim asked as he studied what was in front of him.

"Not really. It took a lot of years of hard work and trial and error before Dr's Shaw and Fujikawa had finally gotten it right." Dr Glassman answered as he shrugged. "Our understanding of slipspace has improved since then, but we've still got a long way to go before we truly master it."

The next few hours had both crews going over the design aspects of what would be needed to create a functioning slipspace drive for _Voyager_. "OK! Everything looks good so far. Now we just need to build the necessary parts and install them." Dr Glassman said with clear anticipation.

"We can handle the construction of the slipspace components. Our industrial replicators can build these materials with relative ease." B'Elanna added.

Roland's avatar then popped up on the holotable. "Do you need the hangar bay in a state of vacuum? We can leave it in a pressurized state if need be."

"Pressurized will work just fine." Ensign Kim answered.

"Understood. I'll inform Captain Lasky of your progress, Dr Glassman." Roland's avatar then winked out.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky was going over the new manifest report detailing how much dilithium crystals that had been brought aboard. He was interrupted as Roland appeared on the holotable. "Captain. Dr Glassman and the engineers from _Voyager_ have finished going over what needs to be done for the modifications."

Captain Lasky nodded at that. "Good. Next order of business then. I think it's time that we take a proper tour of _Voyager _now that any further interruptions should be kept at a minimum."

"Aye, sir."

"Have the Master Chief and Cortana come to the bridge. I'm sure that she'll be happy to go poking around the new systems of _Voyager_." Captain Lasky ordered the AI.

"Message sent, sir. Cortana sends her regards." Roland replied.

"I'm sure she does." Captain Lasky gave a silent laugh.

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Secondary Hull airlock**

Captain Janeway and Tuvok stood ready at the engineering decks airlock once again. "This time it's just Captain Lasky and one escort. A Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-117 if I'm correct."

"According to the historical record that was shared with us, this Master Chief, was integral to the survival of the human race in the ending years of their war with the Covenant." Tuvok added.

"A legendary super soldier…" Captain Janeway muttered. "I wonder why he's bringing someone like him along?"

"Unknown. However, I believe that we have nothing to fear." Tuvok gave his opinion.

The airlock opened and Captain Janeway found herself looking at the UNSC Captain in person once again. Next to him stood the towering armored form of the Master Chief. "Captain Janeway. I hope you don't mind me having the Master Chief here along as my escort?" Captain Lasky queried.

"Not at all. Although, may I ask why he's fully armored?" Captain Janeway asked curiously.

Captain Lasky was beat to the punch as Cortana spoke up from John's helmet speakers. "He's more comfortable this way. Also, wherever I go, he goes."

"As I was about to say… the Master Chief and Cortana come as a package deal. So to speak." Captain Lasky answered.

Captain Janeway shrugged off the implications of the current conversation. "Anyways, I have to thank you for letting Suitably Balanced stay on board _Voyager_. His talents have been a great help to my ship so far."

"Good to hear. I'll have another Huragok brought over so they can reproduce. That way Suitably Balanced can spread the knowledge that he's gained on your systems so far." Captain Lasky offered.

"Thank you, Captain. Now then, let's start a proper tour of my ship."

The tour started simply as they all entered a turbolift. The Master Chief had to understandably duck his head when entering any doorways that they came to. The turbolift was no exception. "Well, they certainly didn't account for someone as big as you to be walking around their ship, Chief." Cortana said inside John's helmet.

He remained silent as usual.

The turbolift doors opened and the group stepped out. "First part of the tour… our holodeck. Let's see how our holo technology compares to your own for yourself." Captain Janeway said as she led the group to a large door. The doors opened and the UNSC crew took in the sight of a large room with black floors and yellow lines in a square pattern with what appeared to be scaffolding on the walls. "Computer. Run mountain vista program."

The room then took on an incredible view of a mountain scape filled with lush vegetation. The group were standing on the patio of a large home that had the perfect view of a sunrise that was taking place. "Well? How's this for a demonstration?" Captain Janeway asked.

Captain Lasky was looking on appreciatively. He nodded at the beauty of the view as he turned his head to Captain Janeway. "Damn… this is beautiful. I'll give it that much." He stepped forward and put his hands on the stone railing. "Feels real too." He looked to the Master Chief. "Cortana? How does it look to you so far?"

John turned his head as he looked around. It all looked real to his human eyes. Thoughts of how technology like this could be used tactically immediately started running through his mind. His thoughts were interrupted as Cortana spoke. "It all looks very realistic, to the human eye at least. With the Master Chief's suit sensors I can see how it's a hologram. Holographic technology like this could revolutionize our training programs and other fields such as education and planning."

Captain Janeway nodded. "We use it for all kinds of purposes. Entertainment, training, education, planning, and even forensic reconstructions if the need arises." She paused for a few seconds. "Computer. End program." The room went back to its normal inactive state. "Cortana? Would you like to see what our holodeck can do for yourself?"

"That depends. Are you willing to let me poke around your systems?" Cortana asked wryly.

Captain Janeway looked over to Captain Lasky with a raised eyebrow. "Don't worry. You'll behave. Right, Cortana?" Captain Lasky said.

"Of course!" Cortana replied a bit too eagerly.

"Somehow, I find it hard to believe you." John said to Cortana with his helmet speakers turned off.

"Just a little fun! That's all, really." Cortana said to John. "I'll try not to poke around… _too much_… at least." She said out loud to the others.

The two Captains silently laughed to themselves. "Then by all means. There's a terminal by the doorway." Captain Janeway offered.

John walked over to the doorway and looked over the terminal. Cortana highlighted an input slot in the terminal. He pulled Cortana's chip free and slid it's adaptive connection port into the slot. A couple seconds later, Cortana's voice echoed out into the room. "Oh wow! Your holo technology is capable of so many different things!" She went silent for a few seconds. "Huh… I'll have to look into _that _a bit later." Cortana said mischievously.

Captain Lasky looked over to Captain Janeway with a raised eyebrow and slightly humorous tone. "Should we be worried yet?"

"Well, judging from her tone of voice she must have come across the holodecks more… _entertainment _focused side. It should be fine though. We have a number of safety protocols in place that keep things safe." Captain Janeway said as a new figure appeared in the room next to them. They turned to look and found themselves looking at a very human version of Cortana dressed in a basic UNSC science uniform.

"Cortana?" John's voice was heard clearly as he looked at her while a multitude of different sensations coursed through him.

"In the flesh, sort of." Cortana giggled. "Let's take a walk down memory lane." The holodeck then shifted to a very recognizable landscape filled with trees and large mountain ranges in the background. "This brings back memories, doesn't it?"

In the distance they could all see UNSC trainees marching or jogging in formation. "This is… Reach. Isn't it?" Captain Lasky asked with awe at the realism the hologram held.

"Reach?" Tuvok asked as he looked at the landscape.

"Reach was one of the last worlds to be glassed by the Covenant in our war. It was where the Master Chief was trained. It was a military fortress world." Captain Lasky answered solemnly.

John stood motionless as his eyes took in the site of an intact and very green Reach. Cortana walked up next to him and waited. "So, Chief? What do you think?" He turned his head to look down at Cortana. He said nothing as he went back to looking around at the scenery.

Cortana turned her head and stage whispered back to the others. "Don't worry. It's just the way he is." She giggled to herself at their amused looks.

"This holo technology of yours is incredible. I can think of a multitude of different ways this could be used to enhance our war games scenarios and strategic planning." Captain Lasky admitted. "What would it take to convince you to help us upgrade our own tech?"

Captain Janeway thought over the implications of upgrading the UNSC's holo tech. "Well, you're already helping us by giving us a new type of FTL drive. Yes, I think this is a fair trade for now."

"Captain. Starfleet regulations clearly state…" Tuvok started to say as he was interrupted.

"I'm well aware, Mr Tuvok. The current situation is far out of what regulations have been intended to manage." Captain Janeway rebuked. "This is an emergency situation as far as everything is concerned. However, it's not like we're not getting anything in return."

"Understood, Captain." Tuvok replied.

"I'll have Ensign Kim look into upgrading your holo tech once he has the time to do so."

Captain Lasky nodded in thanks. "It's much appreciated, Captain Janeway. So… what's next on the tour then?"

The next couple hours were spent going to various places aboard _Voyager_.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Over the next two weeks, the crew of _Voyager_ prepared their ship for its upgrades. The _Infinity_ had more than enough power to spare and resources available in order for their replicators to build all the necessary components. Captain Lasky himself was going over the mission outline that had been sent to him by Lt Commander Daniels. The UNSC _Cover of Night_ had been practically overstocked with BLACK WIDOW spy satellites and slipspace comm buoys. Daniels was obviously planning on this mission to take some time while the _Infinity _and _Voyager_ took the time necessary to set up their home base of operations.

"Roland. Status of the _Cover of Night_?" Captain Lasky said as he watched a video feed of the crew of _Voyager_ beginning the process of partially dismantling their warp nacelles. They were using what they referred to as work bee shuttle craft. They only had a small number of them, but they were well equipped for this task.

"Successful drop from slipspace. They're reorienting for the jump over to the Serpent Nebula." Roland answered.

"Good. It's up to Cortana, Blue Team, and Daniels to get what we need. Let's hope our luck holds out." Captain Lasky said in a confident tone.

**UNSC **_**Cover of Night**_

**Bridge**

Lt Commander Daniels stood on the bridge of the _Cover of Night_ as his small crew prepared the ship for autonomous control. The jump over to the Citadel from their current position would take at least two weeks time. How much time they experienced overall would depend on slipspace itself as travel times between points always varied slightly or drastically. The ship and crew would go through causal reconciliation upon exit from slipspace as the ship and local spacetime equalized. Cortana would oversee ship functions and the trip overall while the crew went into cryostasis for the short trip, which would help save on supplies in the end.

"Cortana. You don't trust the Quarians much either." Daniels stated.

"Considering that the Batarian pirates didn't possess a Codex of their own for us to compare it to… no, I don't. Not completely without more intel on them from an outside source." Cortana answered as her avatar appeared on the holotable.

Daniels nodded in agreement. "With their Captains' near single minded obsession with attempting to have us share our tech with them for the purpose of retaking their homeworld? One would think that after their catastrophic losses during the Morning War that they would concentrate on rebuilding and ensuring their species survival."

Cortana gestured with her hand to the side as she brought up the relevant info from the Quarian Codex. "It says here that the Citadel Council denied the Quarians the right to settle on any planets suitable for establishing a colony without reason. I've got a sneaking suspicion that the Quarians were hellbent on building an armada of ships just so they could attempt to retake their homeworld. Suspiciously, it appears as if a number of crucial details have been left out of the historical timeline. It's their own history. So why would events look like they've been doctored unless they're trying to hide something?"

"Mere speculation for the time being. Cortana. Wake us when we're near our slipspace exit." Lt Commander Daniels ordered.

"Aye, sir. Enjoy your nap." Cortana said as Daniels had already turned and appeared to ignore her comment. "Pleasant fellow, that one." She said to herself as she went to the task of writing several dumb AI programs to handle the various tasks that they had ahead of them.

The UNSC _Cover of Night _was a part of the newest Sahara class heavy-corvettes built by ONI after the conclusion of the Human-Covenant War. It used the latest Series VI CODEN Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Drive, which is comparable to a Covenant slipspace drive in capacity. It's stealth capabilities had been further improved with the use of Active Camouflage systems reverse engineered from captured Covenant technology. It could remain stealthed for several days at a time in an active scanning state and for weeks in a passive state.

The ship had a single custom built stealth pelican dropship which had the active camouflage module from a Covenant Phantom dropship installed. Along with a more robust set of hybrid fusion reactors to compensate for the extra power drain. The shield generator from a broadsword interceptor had been installed as well. The upgrades had reduced the size of its internal troop bay by nearly half. The upgrades, overall, were very worth the cost of its construction for the purposes it was intended for.

Five OF92 Booster Frames were also among the _Cover of Night_'s small compliment. The usual Hornet nuclear mines and Shiva missiles were left aboard the _Infinity_ for the time being as combat operations were not expected. That didn't mean that the _Cover of Night_ was defenseless though. It had its usual pulse cannons for light self defense.

After three weeks of travel through slipspace, the _Cover of Night_ was near its exit point. Cortana had finished her initial task of writing the various dumb AI's that would handle clandestine intel collection rather quickly. That had left her with almost nothing else to do in the meantime. So she had busied herself by tweaking and improving any systems that felt 'slow' to her on the _Cover of Night_.

Cortana's avatar appeared on the small holotable on the bridge of the _Cover of Night _as Lt Commander Daniels and the rest of his bridge crew came through the doors. "Status." Daniels blankly ordered as he neared the holotable.

Cortana displayed a countdown timer for their projected exit from slipspace. "Slipspace exit will occur within two hours time."

Daniels simply nodded as he leaned over the holotable. "Sensors. What's our exit look like?" He called out to his sensor officers.

"Getting occasional gravitational blips crossing our general location in realspace, sir. More than likely ships moving out of system."

"Cortana. Let's take things slow at first. We can always return to do a more indepth intrusion if necessary. No point in revealing ourselves before we know what we're dealing with." Daniels urged. "See if you can get a more comprehensive version of the Codex if you can." Never once did his tone change from its blank inflection

"I'll see what I can do, sir." Cortana answered blandly. 'Would it kill you to be a little more enthusiastic about this?' She thought to herself.

**Serpent Nebula**

Two hours later, a black portal lined with swirling blue white light opened and a shimmer slipped its way into realspace. The UNSC _Cover of Night_ had cut all power to the engines just before exiting slipspace. They were planning on several days and up to a week of passive observation. They could potentially extend the amount of time they spent in system if necessary.

"Sensors. Passive scans only. Find out what's around us." Daniels ordered his bridge crew.

"Nothing around us. The nebula and ambient radiation masked our exit from slipspace. We're in the clear, sir." The sensor officer answered back.

Daniels nodded. "Cortana." He said in her direction.

"Already on it, sir." Cortana replied as her avatar appeared. "That's a lot of civilian traffic. I wonder how their traffic control is able to handle all of that without the aid from a dedicated AI?"

Daniels simply looked at Cortana as if to say 'Yes? And?'

"Moving on. They appear to have a dedicated fleet in system allocated to defense of the Citadel. It numbers in the hundreds but they mostly consist of their smaller cruisers and frigates." Cortana held out her hand to the side as she brought up the image of a single ship. "The largest ship in the fleet seems to be this one."

Lt Commander Daniels looked over the image in front of him. "Practicality doesn't seem to be their strong suit when it comes to ship design." He commented on the strangely shaped ship. It looked like a giant cross with how wide and tall it was. The large hole through its center made no sense to him without further information regarding its purpose.

"Without going into active scanning I won't be able to tell you much else than just how it looks on the surface." Cortana replied.

"Agreed. See if you can find an easy target to infiltrate and gain what intel you can without being noticed." Daniels ordered.

"Don't make it sound like its a simple chore." Cortana snarked. "This is gonna be fun! Until it gets boring, that is."

Within the hour, Cortana had found a Volus freighter making its way towards the Citadel. She had infiltrated the ships simple civilian systems with ease and had downloaded their copy of the Codex for comparison.

"Well, would you look at that. The Quarians lied." Cortana said after she made a quick review. "Who saw that one coming?"

"I did!" One of the bridge crew answered back jokingly which caused Lt Commander Daniels to level a blank stare on him. The offending officer shrunk back into his chair with a silent snicker to himself.

"Continue intel collection operations for the time being. Send a copy of the updated Codex to my datapad." Daniels ordered.

Lt Commander Daniels then quietly sat in his chair as he read over what was sent to him. "So… the Quarians government didn't even try talking to the Geth once they gained sentience, and kept the conflict secret from the galaxy for an entire year." He shook his head at that. "At least some of them used their brains and tried diplomacy. That won't do much in the end against a government that's hellbent on doing something stupid. What logic is there in waging a war of genocide against their creators? Well, we won't be doing anything further with the Quarians until we first make contact with the Geth. Even if we try to bring them together, the Quarians will more than likely try to wage war out of spite."

Cortana's avatar then appeared on the holotable after Daniels had finished his initial overview of the updated Codex. "Sir. I've managed to hitch a ride over into the Citadels systems."

"Understood. Go for less sensitive subjects for the time being. Once you've gained a more concrete scope of how their cyber security functions, move onto military and political lines of interest." Lt Commander Daniels said as he kept his eyes on his datapad.

**Several days later**

"This Councilor Sparatus, a Turian mind you, seems to be the most pragmatic of the current governing council. He seems to rather enjoy being a politician." Lt Commander Daniels commented on what they've observed the last few days.

Cortana had found her way into Citadel systems and watched in on a number of meetings that the three current heads of the Citadel Council had had. The meetings were 'enlightening' in her opinion. Especially the ones with Ambassador Udina in them. The man seemed to delight in making his complaints well known to the Council.

"The Turians in general seem to espouse military doctrine and discipline above all else. The Asari prefer to be patient and play the long game with anything they set themselves to. Salarians, with their short lifespans, excell at intelligence and scientific endeavors. While Humans of this galaxy take on the jack of all trades route, much like we had." Cortana added.

"Were we able to learn anything of note from our observations that we should follow up on?" Daniels queried.

"Well, the Turians and Systems Alliance are in the last stages of a joint project building a stealth frigate. I haven't dug anything further on it than just knowing that it's nearing completion as they had a short meeting about it." Cortana answered casually.

"Understood. I think we've learned enough for the time being. Deploy a BLACK WIDOW spy satellite in an area that will avoid detection. Next destination will be the Sol system." Lt Commander Daniels ordered as he looked over the gathered intel.

"Aye, sir."

**AN:** I'm currently debating on whether or not I should bring the _Infinity_'s escort fleet into the story at some point. If I do, I'll have to go back and rewrite a little bit of Chapter 1 to fix that so they can show up somewhere eventually. Of course since they weren't intended to come along for the ride they'll have suffered damage and would have to spend time repairing themselves before they can reach out and find out what's going on. The escort fleet would have 8 Autumn class heavy cruisers, 20 frigates of varying classes, and one phoenix class fleet support tender.

Sorry if things seem to be going slow at the moment, I like taking my time and building things up before stuff happens. Also, I don't like revealing what my hidden plot lines are but it seems I'll have to leave notes from time to time to let people have an idea of what's going on so they don't get turned off by the story.

What do you guys think about having an unterriformed Reach be their FOB? Of course Reach wouldn't be in its canon position from the Halo universe as it was only 10 or so light years from Earth. The reason for its new position outside of Systems Alliance capacity to reach would be just a different overall location due to it being a different universe.

Let me know what everyone thinks.

**For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN:** Still thinking on the whole escort fleet idea. Here's my initial idea on that if it happens. They're out in an isolated system. The shift from the Halo universe severely damaged the ships. None of them have functional slipspace drives. Their only saving grace is that the phoenix class fleet support tender has a fully kitted out factory level which can build anything that they could need. Even new slipspace engines. The Spirit of Fire was a more ground support focused ship. This one that I'm thinking of focuses more on logistical support and supplies manufacturing. It could theoretically build a ship piece by piece, but that would take forever. But it could if it had to though. As far as when they'd show up in the story? A couple years or so.

"But?! They'll turn this into a curbstomp fic if they show up!" Technically not. There are thousands of Mass Effect ships in the galaxy. Even though Halo humanity ships are very tough, they can't take on an entire galaxy with so few ships. Not to mention that the Reapers have been doing their thing for around a BILLION years. So there's gonna be a ton of them to deal with. Not to mention that Q is watching things progress. He could have a word with Cartographer to see if he can spice things up a bit in his own way too.

I'm not bringing in any other universes so you guys don't have to worry about that. More ships from their respective universes? On the fence at the moment. But it'll be a long time before we get to that point in the story. Also, no Forerunner shenanigans either. Though, the _Infinity_ science center has a bunch of captured tech from Prometheans that they had gotten their first time on Requiem. Not to mention that the _Infinity_'s slipspace drive is an actual Forerunner drive with its own Vacuum Energy generator to power itself. The Star Trek crew would have fun going through all that tech if given the chance to.

They could also just build ships of their own with a combination of all three universes tech. The robust construction of Halo ships, the high tech of Star Trek ships, and the high mobility of Mass Effect. It's not like the _Infinity_ doesn't have personnel to spare in some instances for a small scout fleet. Just imagine a sturdy Halo frigate with Star Trek phasers that can move like a Mass Effect ship.

Also, has anyone ever thought about how it's ridiculous that Mass Effect dreadnoughts with their mass accelerators couldn't get speeds higher than a little above 4,000 km per second? They literally lighten the 20kg rounds to near zero mass and they couldn't do any better than that. Meanwhile Halo ODP's could get a 3000 ton slug moving around 12,000 km per second. So that tells me that the Halo verse has a much higher understanding of magnetic field manipulation. So imagine what they could do with a MAC cannon upgraded with mass effect tech. That'd be downright terrifying to anything on the wrong side of it.

Daniels calls the humans in the Systems Alliance pushovers because they didn't put up much of a fight when it came to accepting the treaties of an Alien Hegemony. In his eyes, humans that are limited by aliens are pushovers unwilling to truly fight for their progress above all others.

Why did Lasky help the Quarians? He's got more of a moral compass than other UNSC commanders. They were also going on false info provided by the Quarians. If they had known the truth he wouldn't have been so willing to assist in the way they did.

Don't worry guys. The Trekkies will have their day in the spotlight once _Voyager_ has its upgrades finished. Until then, it's sneaky sneaky time with Cortana and co.

Also, on a rather ominous note, Dragonsatan just so happened to be the 666th follower to my story. Not sure if you planned it that way but you timed it perfectly if you did.

AU in orbital terms stands for astronomical unit. Which is the radius of Earth's orbit around Sol.

Basic disclaimer: I do not own any of the properties mentioned in this work. Halo, Mass Effect, and Star Trek: Voyager belong to their respective owners. Absolutely no one has my permission to repost this for profit.

**Chapter 10: Home Sweet Home, Eyes in the Shadows**

**UNSC **_**Cover of Night**_

**Bridge**

"Cortana. Did you plant the package successfully?" Lt Commander Daniels asked the intelligence AI.

"Of course. We have to keep an eye on our new neighbors at the very least. There's no telling if they'd go and accidentally trample our new flower gardens." Cortana snarked back.

The package referred to the dumb AI that Cortana had planted into Citadel systems. She had decided to affectionately name the AI Peeping Tom. As his only task was to watch in on any and all events on the Citadel without being noticed. News reports and Council activities were high among his priorities, although he would also keep an eye on the more underground happenings as well. A civilization this large would always have an underground element to it, no matter how hard someone tries to snuff it out.

"Understood. Once we've entered slipspace, forward all intel to the _Infinity_." Daniels ordered as he next gave out commands to head to their next destination.

The _Cover of Night _then opened a slipspace portal and quietly left the Serpent Nebula unnoticed. In its place a small basketball sized BLACK WIDOW spy satellite waited patiently for any data packets sent its way for it to forward to the slipspace comm buoy left in the 11 dimensions of slipspace nearby.

"Well, I'd say that went well." Cortana commented as Daniels looked over what was on his datapad. The man seemed to enjoy the simplicity of looking over things himself rather than having it organized for him. "I imagine that once you're done reading over what we've managed to get so far that you'll be going into cryo?" She asked.

Daniels looked up from his datapad and nodded minutely before looking back down. "Ever the conversationalist, aren't we?" Cortana quipped. Daniels gave a noncommittal grunt at that.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Sub Vessel Docks**

"I have to admit. Your ship is rather pleasing on the eyes." Captain Lasky commented on _Voyager_'s overall appearance.

"It's easier to show a diplomatic front when your ship looks more inviting." Captain Janeway admitted. "In Starfleet, it's expected for all ships to be able to handle first contact scenarios. So aesthetics are taken into account in ship design."

"We never had a chance at a peaceful first contact. The Covenant were hostile from our first encounter up until the end of the war. Even then, there were splinter factions that still believed in their suicidal Great Journey." Captain Lasky said as he watched the crew of _Voyager_ continue their work on upgrading their ship.

"Even when the truth was revealed, they still held on to the lies of the prophets?" Captain Janeway asked.

Captain Lasky took in a deep breath before sighing. "It was the entire point of their religious Covenant. Without those beliefs, their entire society would crumble and collapse." His face took on a frustrated look. "So many billions killed for no reason other than so a few delusional fools could keep their power."

Captain Janeway looked down in thought. The scars that humans from the UNSC had ran very deep. Hopefully, they could keep their xenophobia to a minimum until real trust between their crews could be established. "How has your crew been handling the fact that alien species are aboard my ship?"

Captain Lasky looked over to her for a brief moment before he looked out into the sub vessel bays in thought. "Some of them are downright hostile at first. But, since they've had a chance to look over your history and see that they aren't genocidal and instead are peaceful, they're coming around. It helps that they look more humanoid than what they're used to seeing."

Captain Janeway accepted that. "Once we get to our destination, I suggest that we work on building a more suitable facility to handle projects like this." She gestured to _Voyager_.

"I agree. A fully functional construction cradle would be a major improvement over the current situation." Captain Lasky replied. "How long do you think it will be until your crew has finished upgrading your ships systems?"

"At least three more weeks to finish installing and testing all the upgrades for functionality. Then final trials and testing to make sure the new systems are fully operable." Captain Janeway answered.

"Good. On an unrelated note, is your crew enjoying the fresh food provided by our facility?" Captain Lasky asked as his eyes drifted over to said object.

Captain Janeway smiled at that. "Very much so. It's always been hard to find reliable sources of fresh food when we were stranded out in the delta quadrant. So having a ready supply of fresh food has been a boon to my crew's morale. How're you able to produce the meat so readily though?"

"That's a bit medical terminology heavy for me. But, from what I understand, it's essentially tissue synthesis and flash cloning using nutrients from the excess food grown." Captain Lasky said as he looked over to a holo pedestal.

Roland's avatar appeared on the holo pedestal as Captain Lasky said that. "That's pretty much the gist of how it works. I can go into more detail if you want me to."

"That won't be necessary." Captain Janeway said with a smile. "Our cook Neelix has been very excited to see all of the fresh and new ingredients that he's been able to work with. Normally, we would be using the food replicators instead of using a kitchen to prepare food. However, with our translocation into the delta quadrant, we were forced to conserve resources. Having real vegetables and fruit from Earth has been very uplifting to our human crewmembers."

"I can imagine." Captain Lasky said with a light laugh.

Their conversation was interrupted as Roland spoke up. "Captain. The _Cover of Night_ has forwarded us a data packet."

"Understood. Captain Janeway? Care to join me up in the conference room so we can review the intel?" Captain Lasky asked.

**Flag Conference Room**

Captain Lasky, Captain Janeway, and Chakotay now stood in the flag conference room in front of the large holo table. A holographic representation of Lt Commander Daniels stood on the table alongside Roland's avatar. "There's a small delay, but Lt Commander Daniels is able to maintain a stable connection for the time being." Roland said while gesturing to Daniels holographic form.

"Understood. We're nearing our exit from slipspace, Commander. What new intel do you have to share with us?" Captain Lasky ordered.

A few seconds later, Daniels answered. "Roland. If you would be so kind as to show them the outline we sent." Roland then brought up the updated Codex along with a number of notes that Daniels had added on the holo table.

Of particular note was the new information on the Quarians that had been added. "I had a feeling something was off about the Quarians." Captain Lasky said as he sighed. "At least we didn't overdo it when we fixed their ships. It'll give them a slight edge, but nothing drastic enough to warrant all out war with the Geth."

"Why would they attack the Geth simply for gaining sentience without provocation?" Chakotay rhetorically asked.

"Fear. Fear of what, however, is the real question." Roland offered his opinion on the subject.

Captain Janeway nodded as she thought on that. "Fear can be a very powerful motivator when it comes to the balance of power in societies. Seeing that there were some members of their race that did work towards peace shows that they weren't all in agreement. Perhaps they feared that the Geth would attack unprovoked in order to free themselves from their newfound status as synthetic slaves? That's the best guess that I've got at the moment."

"Further thoughts on what happened in the past won't get us anywhere for the time being. Let's focus on the current status of the galaxy as a whole." Captain Lasky urged. "Of particular note is the fact that there are thousands of military grade ships scattered across the galaxy in the form of various patrol fleets. It seems that their overall function is basic patrols of the Mass Relay network and anti piracy operations in certain areas. The bulk of their forces are made up of Turian ships and personnel."

"The Turians were the first alien species to make contact with the Systems Alliance. Ironically, it was their strict adherence to Citadel law and protocol that led the Turians to shoot first and think later." Chakotay commented in relation to overall Turian mentality.

"Being that Humanity was ignorant of Citadel law and the galaxy as a whole, it's no surprise that their curiosity led them to activate any and all dormant Mass Relays that they came across." Captain Janeway added.

"It was a needless but thankfully short conflict for the Systems Alliance. The Turian Hierarchy has apparently made some changes to how they handle situations like this in the future so that things like this don't happen again." Roland elaborated on the basic laws set forth by the Citadel Council.

Daniels had been observing silently as the others went over the new information. He spoke up once a lull in the conversation occurred. "My suggestion is that once _Voyager_ has finished upgrading its FTL capacity, that they investigate uncharted systems for signs of a cycle of sorts repeating itself. With _Voyager_'s advanced sensor suite and overall less intimidating size, you should be able to move about without gaining much attention. Cartographer did say that we still had time to stop the cycle from repeating. So that clues us in to the fact that catastrophic events are happening in a predictable pattern."

Chakotay and Captain Janeway shared a look with each other before nodding. "Agreed. While in transit from system to system we'll drop slipspace comm buoys so we can stay in touch." Captain Janeway replied. "What will the _Infinity_ be doing in the meantime?"

"The _Infinity_ and my crew will be busy setting up our base of operations while fortifying our overall position." Captain Lasky answered. "I don't suppose that you could loan us your replicators again for the time being so that our work goes faster?" He queried.

"Considering that we're both in this together in order to get home, our complete cooperation with each other shouldn't be hindered." Captain Janeway said. "We'll build you a new set of replicators. Ones that are larger and more suited to the construction of large scale projects."

Captain Lasky looked over to Roland's avatar and Lt Commander Daniels' hologram. Roland looked to be excited at the prospect of the _Infinity_ having its own set of replicators while Daniels kept his blank face in place. "Alright. Sounds good to me. Roland. Projected exit from slipspace?"

"We should be arriving at our destination within two hours time, sir."

**Unknown System**

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Bridge**

Captain Lasky and Captain Janeway were standing next to each other on the bridge of the _Infinity_. They were joined by Commander Palmer and Chakotay as they patiently awaited the ships exit from slipspace.

"Roland. What should we expect to see on our exit from slipspace?" Captain Lasky queried.

Roland's avatar appeared on the holotable. "The star is a main sequence blue dwarf slightly more massive than Sol. Other than more luminosity and higher mass, it shouldn't be much different than what we're used to on Earth."

"Understood. Planets?"

"The Systems Alliance hadn't done a full survey of the system other than a cursory overview. It showed an inconclusive number of planets in system. Somewhere between four at the least and more than ten at most. Two of the planets were potentially in the stars habitable zone." Roland answered.

Captain Janeway spoke up at this point. "That's good. We'll at least have options in the case of setting up a groundside colony if necessary."

"My thoughts exactly." Roland replied.

"Slipspace exit in ten!" The navigation officer called out.

The gathered officers of both crews looked up to the main screen expectantly. The black nothingness of slipspace finally opened up to the view of a bright blue star and its solar system. "Sensors. What are we looking at?" Captain Lasky called out.

Roland then brought up the sensor feed on the main screen. "Twelve planets in total, sir. That's quite a few terrestrial planets." He then highlighted them on the screen. "We're working with eight terrestrial and four gas giants." Roland focused the screen on one rocky planet in particular. It was a massive rocky planet around 20,000 km in diameter. "Well, would you look at that. I think we found a planet with an ample supply of element zero. It has a very active magnetic field and fluctuating gravity fields. It's not suitable for habitation."

The planet in question had a small asteroid belt and ring system orbiting it. "That planets ring system could be a good starting point for resource harvesting." Chakotay pointed out. "Roland. Can you tell us more about its composition?"

"Easy enough." Roland said while bringing up the appropriate sensor readings. "Man. Looks like that used to be the planets moon at one point. The makeup of the ring system tells me that at one time the planets gravity varied severely in intensity in the past. It literally tore its own moon apart."

"Once _Voyager_ is finished with its upgrades, we'll do an in-depth study of this phenomenon. Element zero is a total unknown to us at the moment, and we need to know everything that we can about it." Captain Janeway stated.

"How do the habitable planets look?" Captain Lasky questioned.

Roland looked over the sensor feeds. "There's two definite choices. One needs terraforming since it doesn't have the necessary atmosphere composition. The other looks to be in the early stages of developing land based life." The planet's oceans covered around half of its surface. "Its atmosphere is mostly breathable, but I would still suggest using respirators when outside of a pressurized structure. Surface gravity is slightly less than Earth standard."

Captain Lasky nodded at this. "Good. We'll worry about setting up a land based colony after we've gotten material supply lines established. Launch survey probes to the two habitable planets."

"Aye, sir."

"For the time being, we'll start mining operations in that planet's ring system." Captain Lasky said as he looked over to the starfleet captain.

"Alright. We'll continue to work on upgrading _Voyager_'s systems. Keep us up to date." Captain Janeway replied.

**UNSC **_**Cover of Night**_

**Bridge**

After Daniels had updated the _Infinity_ on what they had found, he had ordered the crew back into cryo for the next part of their mission. The Sol system of this galaxy was in roughly the same position that it was in their own universe. According to the Codex, the planets were essentially the same except for Pluto's moon Charon having been in actuality a buried Mass Relay.

"Well, looks like it's back to being bored beyond belief while we head to our next destination." Cortana mused to herself. "Though, I wonder if we can even use the Mass Relays. That'd speed up our travel times. That'll have to wait until we reach a more secluded Relay." She shrugged. "Guess I'll just busy myself with going over their programming language line by line." Several minutes later. "Poo, I'm bored already."

The _Cover of Night_'s trip through slipspace was uneventful and went by faster than Cortana thought it should. "Guess slipspace felt the need to make my tortuous boredom go by faster." It had only taken the _Cover of Night_ just over two weeks time relative to their own perspective to travel to the Sol system from the Serpent Nebula. It had still taken them around three and a half weeks time relative to real space.

Daniels and his bridge crew walked through the doors to the bridge. "Status." He once again blankly ordered.

A hint of annoyance crossed Cortana's face. "Exit from slipspace above Sol's orbital plane projected in one hour, sir."

Daniels nodded as he sat down in his command chair. As a member of ONI's Section One, he specialized in intel acquisition and strategic dispensation of said intel. "Subjects of interest will be this Humanities overall technological standing in this galaxy as a whole. Once we've gained a distinct understanding of their level, we'll see what advances we can strategically plant to improve their status."

"Ooo, sounds fun. I imagine that you want these advances to be placed in areas that aren't easily spread to the rest of the galaxy?" Cortana asked.

"Naturally." Daniels said as he went over what advances they could impart to the Systems Alliance in his head.

The _Cover of Night_ seamlessly exited slipspace three AU above Sol's orbital plane relative to Jupiter's orbit an hour later. "Cortana." Lt Commander Daniels said.

Cortana turned and gave a forced smile. "Of course. Let's see what this Humanity is capable of."

Over the next few seconds, Cortana carefully made her way into the local Extranet of the Systems Alliance. "Well, the date according to our local relatives is March 3rd of the year 2183. Local time is 1341 hours. No wonder they seem immature overall in their doctrine. They haven't had any significant wars and the necessary time to grow as a space faring society."

Daniels nodded at Cortana's basic assessment regarding the Systems Alliance's development as a whole. "And their technological standing in regards to studies and future projects on the civilian side?"

"More of the same projects that the other races are following in general. Mass Effect may have astounding implications at first, but it ultimately tops out after a certain point. Asari and their 2,700 years of space travel can attest to that." Cortana answered. "So, can I play cat and mouse yet with some researchers?" She asked with a smirk.

Daniels' answer was quick and brief. "Yes. Keep it simple for now."

Cortana then began to delve deeper into Earth's local networks to find the appropriate universities with aspiring young and brilliant minds in order to nudge them in the proper directions. "Ooo, this looks promising. Their understanding of magnetic field manipulation is woefully underdeveloped compared to ours. Should I start there?"

"What would the immediate implications of advances in that field offer?" Daniels questioned.

Cortana smiled playfully. "Oh all sorts, really. It would advance their weapons capabilities right off the bat and more than likely help spur on numerous advances in mass effect field manipulation as well."

"Good. Start there then. Do so in such a way that the individuals who _discover_ these advances don't draw any undue attention. The last thing we need is for our work to be put in jeopardy."

**March 17, 2183**

**1705 hours local time**

**UNSC **_**Cover of Night**_

After finding an appropriate subject to play theoretical science games with, who was in the process of attending a military institution in the field of applied sciences, Cortana had _enlightened_ the young mans' understanding in his chosen field. The young man was joined with a few other lucky individuals in fields of theoretical physics at other universities as well. "That should be good enough for now." Cortana commented aloud after she had influenced her last target.

"Good work." Lt Commander Daniels almost monotonously said. "Set a course for Arcturus." He called out to his bridge crew. The _Cover of Night_ once again left a small BLACK WIDOW spy satellite in their wake before leaving the Sol system.

About an hour later, the _Cover of Night_ exited slipspace near the star Arcturus with its stealth systems active. "Cortana. Gain access to their systems aboard Arcturus Station and plant the package when you're able." Daniels ordered once their sensors had taken in the sight of the five kilometer station that was Arcturus Station. The package was another specialized observation dumb AI that Cortana had written. She named this one Silent Witness.

"As if you had to ask." Cortana replied as she started organizing all of the sensor streams. "For being the heart of their government, they've got a decent number of ships allocated to defense at the least."

"Once you have time, I want profiles of the commanding officers of the Systems Alliance fleets. Depending on the success of your actions, I may need to get into contact with influential personnel in order to accelerate our goals." Daniels ordered as he looked over the image of the rather simple form of Arcturus Station on the holotable.

**AN:** Ugh, shorter chapter. Couldn't really add much else unless I started getting into things on the Mass Effect side. We'll get some perspective on things from TIM aka The Illusive Man once Cortana's mind games filter through his network of spies.

As of posting this Chapter, this story has gotten 56,956 views, 488 favs, and 687 followers. It's just shy of 200 reviews at 198 at the moment. I've gotten a few very good suggestions concerning the whole support fleet idea. We're still very far from that point of the story so I've got time to put things together into a plausible plot line that'll be logical and entertaining.

As you can see, I just went with an original star system for them to set up in. Figured that would give me more leg room to work with instead of having to work around an established star system. Huzzah for having a definite time stamp now. Let's hope I don't get that all confused at some point in the future. I'm having the _Normandy_ launching around July of 2183 if anyone is wondering. That's the best guess that I've got for the timeline in my head for Mass Effect 1.

**For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.**


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: **Sorry for the delay on this. Real life and work happened. Happy late Thanksgiving for those of you in the States.

Alright, let's get back into things shall we? The reason I chose this specific date in the timeline for the _Infinity _and _Voyager _to appear is this. I didn't want them having too much time available to become the absolute curbstomp fest that they present in terms of tech that they both have. HFY fics can be entertaining if done well, but that's not my overall intention with this story. I intend for there to be at least some struggle and pushback on all three sides. There are a bunch of potential plot lines that I could develop with how I've got things set up. And I intend to explore quite a few of them if possible.

Now, I've looked around and couldn't find anything stating what the races of Mass Effect used to power their weapons and armor systems. Mass effect cores don't generate their own power, they consume it. Their ships use conventional fusion reactors to power themselves. More than likely in the deuterium-helium3 fusion or maybe even the helium3-helium3 process from what I've read. That's fact as far as I know. It they're using He3-He3 fusion then that probably explains why their ships are prone to overheating. Small arms and armor? The only thing I can think of are super efficient batteries and such or possibly micro hydrogen fuel cells. There's nothing in the lore stating that they had micro fusion reactors like what runs MJOLNIR armor systems. So that's a limiting factor for the potential effectiveness of their small arms. Gotta make sure their weapons can last through an entire battle or skirmish before a battery swap or refuel. Potential speeds of their small arms are more than likely slower than what people would imagine with that in mind. Much faster than conventional arms but not so fast that it seems improbable for a battery to handle. You've also got to take recoil forces into mind with their weapons as well. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and all you know.

I'm looking at things from a somewhat realistic viewpoint here. Those of you who are educated in the proper fields would know more of course. I did take calculus and physics courses when I was still in school 20 years ago. My knowledge in those fields is so rusty though that you could probably smack me with a hammer and I'd crumble into a pile of iron oxide. So you can forgive me if some things seem a bit off. Point it out to me and I'll make corrections where necessary.

On the Halo side of things, the M68 Asynchronous Linear-Induction Motor or more commonly referred to as the Gauss Cannon, fires a 25x130mm M485 HV/FTHPP round. It's capable of getting the high density round to approximately 13.7km per second. The round is designed in such a way to mostly prevent over penetration and cause vaporization of the target and round on impact. Just the shockwave from having something of that size pass several feet from you going that speed would kill you. Of course in game it doesn't do that but thats in a game. Reality wise? That's a terrifying weapon to have pointed in your direction. The round is going so fast that it leaves a plasma trail in its wake.

The M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle or Spartan Laser uses a high capacity battery of some kind that is rechargeable with the appropriate recharge station. The Spartan Laser has an extreme amount of power in its shots. The lore states that it's capable of piercing through a Covenant Phantoms armor in one shot. Now, piercing the armor and destroying it are two different things of course. Doesn't mean someone couldn't get a lucky shot in and bring a Phantom down with one shot. Covenant ship mounted pulse lasers could punch through up to 45cm of Titanium A battle plate in a single shot and operated in the kilowatt range and visible spectrum. If you know anything about titanium then you know that it is a highly reflective metal. Covenant plasma torpedoes had temperatures of 3,000 degrees celsius. That's nearly double the melting point of titanium.

Ship mounted GARDIAN lasers as far as I can see lack that kind of extreme power per shot. If they had that kind of power a single shot would be all that would be needed to bring down an incoming fighter or missile. They went for combat endurance with GARDIAN laser systems and to avoid overly expensive and hard to maintain laser components.

On the Star Trek side, phasers use some form of energetic particle called nadion particles. Depending on how the phaser is tuned it could have a variety of effects on the target. Either simply stunning a target, disrupting various molecular connections, or outright vaporizing things by breaking apart molecular bonds. They can be focused into a tiny cutting beam or widened to a large area of effect. That's just a very basic oversimplification of how they function. Going into further detail would take whole paragraphs that I'm not going to put in here. Wanna find out more? Go google it yourself by all means, that's what I did.

Don't worry folks. I don't intend on really focusing on anything remotely romantic happening in this story for the most part. I suck at expressing emotions both on paper and in real life, so I'm going to avoid making a fool out of myself for everyone's sake. That's part of my whole personality disorder I've got going. Very hard to socialize when I can't express myself properly or even read others moods without a giant neon sign pointing it out to me.

Magnetic field manipulation. I was generalizing for the most part, but I'll raise you this. When Cortana took over the Covenant DDS Carrier _Ascendant Justice_ she mentioned that they didn't have a full understanding of magnetics. They had the hardware, but not the knowledge to properly use it. She turned its plasma turrets into pseudo energy projectors. The Covenant pretty much brute forced the calculations for their weapons.

CAP stands for Combat Air Patrol.

Enough with this long ass Author's Note, let's get on with the story!

Basic disclaimer: I do not own the properties in this work. Mass Effect, Halo, and Star Trek: Voyager belong to their respective owners. Absolutely no one has my permission to repost this for profit. That'd just get everyone involved into a whole mess of trouble.

**Chapter 11: Ominous findings. Where'd you get those? Daily life aboard **_**Infinity**_**.**

**THV **_**Hammer Head**_

**Heavy Cruiser of the Turian Hierarchy**

**En route to suspected pirate base location**

Maxtus Dardadus' position may not be very glamerous, but he thoroughly enjoyed putting fresh recruits through their paces. Nothing like letting young, but well trained Turians, prove themselves against live targets that deserved no mercy. Maxtus was the commanding officer in charge of a small fleet of Turian Hierarchy ships tasked with anti piracy operations patrolling near the edges of Outer Citadel space. The pirate base that they were currently heading to was close to the border of the Attican Traverse according to the intel that they had recently come across during a failed pirate raid on an isolated colony in Citadel space.

"Helm. ETA to the pirate base location?" Maxtus called out to his helmsman.

"SIR! Arrival expected in ten minutes!" The helmsman called back.

"Comms! Final checks on all systems across the fleet."

"Aye sir!" A few seconds passed. "All fleet assets reporting ready, sir!"

"All hands! Battle stations! Bring the fleet to a halt on the edges of the system!" Maxtus ordered as he watched over his crew from his standing position among them.

Coming to a halt on the edges of the pirate base system, the small fleet of ships started scanning for their prey. Around ten minutes later the sensor officer reported his findings. "Sir! Two distinct debris fields detected five light minutes from our location!"

'Debris fields?' Maxtus thought in his head. 'It could be a trap.' "Helm! Set course for the closest debris field. Keep the fleet ready to evade a possible trap and have all weapons and barriers active."

Upon coming within several thousand kilometers of the first debris field, the crew of the THV _Hammer Head_ were able to gain a visual. "Sensors. What are we looking at?" Maxtus ordered as he looked at what their outer cameras could see.

"Sir! Debris field consistent with spacecraft wreckage!" The sensor officer answered back.

"I want every inch of that debris field scanned for any hidden traps before we move in for a closer inspection." Maxtus called out as he ran over the implications of this development in his head. "It's not unheard of for rival pirate gangs to attack each other over disputes and territory. The question now though, is why?" He muttered to himself.

Several minutes passed as the fleets sensors combed over the debris field. "Sir! Sensor scans complete! No bombs detected! Only residual eezo readings from a mass effect core breach!"

"Helm! Take us in for a closer inspection. Sensors! Continue to scan the system for any signs of further pirate activity!" Maxtus commanded.

When they had finally come within a close enough range that all surface details of the debris field had become discernible, the experienced Captain became aware of their implications. "Calji? Take a look at this. What do you see?" Maxtus called behind him to his ships resident Salarian science officer.

Jidum Calji, science officer of the THV _Hammer Head_, looked over the screen and quickly came to his conclusions. "Significant scouring and deformation from extreme heat near breaches in armor plating. Breaches too large for GARDIAN laser systems. Armor and internals boiled away in seconds. Suspect plasma based weapon with temperatures of thousands of degrees celsius. Will need samples to confirm suspicions." He answered in typical Salarian clipped speech.

"So… a new type of weapon system then?" Maxtus queried.

"Possible. Look here. Engine cowling damage consistent with laser impact. Again, far too high heat scouring in surrounding area. Laser likely in kilowatt range yield." Jidum rapidly answered.

"Comms! Keep the fleet on high alert! We've come across a possible new weapon system. Calji, take a shuttle and any crew along that you need to gather samples. We'll keep watch while you do your work." Maxtus ordered as his instincts told him something other than a gang war happened here.

Nearly two hours passed as the Salarian scientist excitedly scoured the debris field for his samples. In that time, the scans of the rest of the system had come back. "Sir! Scans of the system complete! The system shows signs of heavy mining activity in the asteroid belt!"

"Heavy mining…" Maxtus said to himself. "Sensors. I want you to scan that asteroid field for any signs of hidden bases within mined out asteroids." He knew that pirates loved hiding their bases away from prying eyes by basing them inside mined out planetoids.

"Aye sir!"

Maxtus opened a personal channel to Jidum. "Calji. What's your status?" A video window opened on his consol with the Salarian typing notes onto his omni tool as he observed the visible damaged sections of the destroyed ships.

"Ships of Batarian design. Older model, crude but effective. Certain of new weapon type used in battle. Ablative plating did little to deter weapons used." Calji answered back as he continued typing. "Bringing samples aboard to forward for further forensic study."

"Understood. Any further findings that I should be aware of?" Maxtus prodded.

The Salarian only paused for a split second before answering as he kept typing one handed. "Signs of massive kinetic impact on other ship. Kinetic barrier not effective in blocking force."

"Massive kinetic impact? Dreadnought class?"

"No. Greater. Round punched hole through ship with larger than dreadnought force. Either massive round or higher relativistic speed." Calji answered with a sense of excitement behind his tone.

Maxtus let that settle in before he muttered under his breath. "Spirits…"

"Recommend immediate forwarding of current findings to Citadel Council." Calji interrupted Maxtus' thoughts as he made his suggestion.

"Agreed. Once you've finished collecting your samples, compile a report for the Citadel Council." Maxtus ordered.

"Sir! We've located what looks like the remains of a base within the asteroid belt!" The sensor officer called out once his VI had looked through the scans.

"Good work. Send the location to my station." Maxtus replied as he looked over the new information on his screen. "Calji. How long until you finish here?"

"Will be finished… now." Calji replied as he stopped typing on his omni tool. "Ready to return."

"Once you're back on board we'll go to the other debris field to collect sensor data before we head to the other point of interest." Maxtus said as he began giving out orders for their next move.

The small fleet then headed over to the other debris field and found much of the same findings as the first ship wreckage had presented. After gathering as much as they could, the fleet moved to the possible location of the local pirate base. When they arrived, they found the remains of a destroyed pirate base along with another field of ship wreckage nearby. Maxtus sent a few scout frigates over to the destroyed ships to speed things up.

"Well… this is certainly unexpected. Calji? Does it look like an explosive was used? I'm not seeing any of the usual signs here." Maxtus offered his thoughts as he looked over what was now on their screens.

"Spectral analysis showing no signs of high explosives. Would take extensive examination to find cause." Calji answered.

"We don't have that kind of time on our hands here. There's no telling if the ones responsible will return or not." Maxtus said as he went over their next objective in a situation like this. "We'll drop a beacon at each of the debris fields for other more well suited ships to come and examine them."

"Received scans on wreckage nearby. Single massive kinetic impacts destroyed ships." Calji recited his thoughts after he quickly read over his screen.

Maxtus thought everything over in his head. He came to two conclusions. One which was improbable, and the other possible. "Either these pirates are getting smarter and developed new weapons, or we're dealing with an unknown race that attacked the pirates."

"Unknown race most likely conclusion." Calji added.

Maxtus nodded at that. "Get the fleet back into formation! Helm! Set a course for the Citadel!"

After the fleet had left, a data burst was sent from the BLACK WIDOW that had been watching over the system. After it had completed its task, it triggered a failsafe and detonated itself with a small nuclear charge. Thereby guaranteeing that any of its technology would be safely disposed of in nuclear fire.

**Quarian Migrant Fleet**

**Freighter Cubra**

Cul'Wafin vas Cubra was exhausted. Annoyed even. Considering that he had been explaining himself and his 'new' ships and the origin of their advanced tech that had never been seen before numerous times already. He groaned to himself once again as the memory of how a hidden program in their systems had triggered upon getting far enough away from where their ships had been repaired. The program in question had wiped all ships databases and even the omni tools of his crew of any and all references to the UNSC _Infinity_ and the USS _Voyager_.

The program had even gone so far as to erase itself so thoroughly after it had finished that there was no chance of ever reconstructing it using computer forensics. They were completely powerless to stop what it had done once it had started its work. Everything had simply locked them out of their systems until it finished.

"That's one way of making sure that nothing but hearsay is known about you…" Cul'Wafin muttered to himself.

"Did you say something?" The Quarian across from him asked. Interrogator was a more apt descriptor in this situation.

"Just a comment about how the humans made sure that only our word of mouth and their technology given to us would be all that is known about them." Cul'Wafin replied with obvious frustration and exhaustion in his voice.

"As you say. We've looked over your crews omni tools and the systems of the ships you brought with you. Nothing points to any references of the two human ships you encountered. The UNSC _Infinity_ and the USS _Voyager_ if what I'm reading in your report is correct." The interrogator manipulated his omni tool. "What we know of the Systems Alliance does not point to any branch civilizations of humanity existing at all. They've only been spacefaring with mass effect technology for less than a century. Nowhere near enough time for something like that to happen."

"You think I don't realize that?" Cul'Wafin retorted. "The tech they had wasn't even based on mass effect and element zero at all. Not one scrap of eezo in either ship in the slightest."

"No element zero, and yet one of the ships was nearly six kilometers long on its own. How would a ship of that size even move effectively?"

Cul'Wafin took in a deep breath as he composed himself. "Not one clue. They wouldn't even consider sharing their technology with us. What they did let us have, is what you see now. I tried begging as hard as I could to get their tech." He bristled for a moment. "They shot me down the instant I asked them. Saying that we're not ready to responsibly use it."

The interrogator huffed and answered in an agitated tone. "That's not for them to decide."

"Well, they did." Cul'Wafin replied as he sighed and leaned back into his seat. "So? What happens now?"

"Our best engineers are going to go through every piece of tech that was gifted to your ships. Once that is done, we'll be seeing how we can use it to our advantage among the fleet." The interrogator turned off his omni tool. "You'll be rewarded for bringing this much back to the fleet at the least."

"Are we done here? I'd like to finally get some rest after all of this questioning." Cul'Wafin asked.

"Yes. You are free to get some rest now." The interrogator nodded and gathered his things before standing and leaving the room.

Cul'Wafin slumped in his seat as he groaned. "Finally… I thought they'd never stop asking me the same things over and over." He was a simple captain in charge of a crew of Quarian salvage experts, not an intelligence agent.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Transit Tram**

Ensign Paris, along with several other junior officers from _Voyager_, were currently riding on one of the transit trams running through the _Infinity_. They were on their way over to the _Infinity_'s memorial park atrium so they could take in the sights. "I'll say it again… this is a _big_ ship." Ensign Paris said in a humorous tone.

"You ain't kiddin there. Ships as big as a city." A UNSC flight officer from the looks of it replied. "She's the biggest ship in our fleet for now." He leaned forward from his seat and reached out a hand. "Lieutenant Jameson."

"Ensign Paris." Tom accepted the handshake. "So… where are you headed on this behemoth of a ship?"

Jameson smirked a bit. "Flight deck. I've got CAP duty today."

"Nice. Must be fun flying those birds of yours around." Ensign Paris leaned forward in obvious interest. "Do they have manual controls?"

"Sure do. 'Course the onboard AI makes sure we don't kill ourselves on accident." Jameson laughed a bit. "Our birds will grind you to paste if we let them."

"Same with our ships. The inertial dampeners make up for most of it." Tom replied.

Jameson nodded at that. "You've got the air of a pilot. You a fly boy?"

Tom answered with a smirk. "Best pilot on _Voyager_. I'm her primary helmsman." He leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially. "So… what do I have to do to get a crack at taking one of your birds out for a spin?"

Jameson thought on that as he brought a hand up to his chin. "Well, you wouldn't be able to take any of them out for real. Mainly cause you don't have a neural lace." He turned his head to point to the neural implant at the base of his skull. "It helps us to maintain situational awareness and the AI uses it to compensate in real time for any mistakes we make before we even make them."

"Well… that sucks." Tom uttered dejectedly as his head slumped.

"Didn't say you couldn't hop in the simulator though." Jameson said with a smirk in response to Ensign Paris' change in mood.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Weapons Range**

Tuvok, Seven of Nine, and a number of _Voyager_'s security crew were standing in front of a long table that had a variety of different UNSC weapons laid out on it. Master Sergeant Marcus Stacker, other officers, and NCO's from the UNSC were handling a cross training exercise of both ships' available small arms.

"Alright listen up! The purpose of this exercise here is to familiarize yerselves with the available weapons systems of both our ships. We don't want any of ya'll getting a wild hair up yer asses when it's on the line and accidentally blastin' yer own heads off pressin' buttons randomly." Sergeant Stacker spoke up mainly to the infantryman of the _Infinity_ in his southern drawl. He looked over to the Starfleet crew. "Now, from what I understand ya'll use laser weapons and the like?"

"Incorrect." Tuvok answered blankly. "They are called phasers. Directed energy weapons in the simplest terms."

Stacker shrugged. "They're yer weapons here. So I'll let ya'll take over."

Tuvok gestured to his security team members. They walked forward and placed down a number of cases filled with their weapons on the table. "We've taken the liberty of setting all of our weapons to training mode. The Type-1 phaser pistol is generally relegated to self defense and utility functions. The Type-2 phaser pistol is larger and more powerful than the Type-1. The Type-3 phaser rifle is used in combat operations and can fire either a beam or pulse." Tuvok picked up and displayed each phaser type in succession.

One of the UNSC officers spoke up. "Quick question. Are these all of the small arms types that you have?"

"Correct. These three phaser types perform all small arms duties adequately." Tuvok answered.

The UNSC personnel all looked at each other before shrugging and looking back to the demonstration. "Each phaser can be tuned in a number of different ways. The beam itself can be focused down into a small cutting beam, or widened to effect a large area. The power of the beam is scalable from a light stun up and to complete disintegration of the target." Tuvok demonstrated each function as he described them. A large screen in the background displayed the functions on a larger scale so all could see as well. "In emergency situations, the phaser can be overloaded and used as an improvised explosive."

"Damn. Disintegration huh? That's a hellovah gun you got there now." Stacker said with a slight laugh as he walked forward and picked up one of the Type-2 phasers. "Not much heft to it if you ask me."

"Their construction is robust, nonetheless." Seven of Nine replied.

"I'll take yer word for it. Not like I'm gonna look fer someone to go and pistol whip right now." Stacker put the Type-2 phaser down. He picked up a Type-3 phaser rifle and looked it over. "Do these come with any attachments fer zero g ops and the like?" He asked as his hand ran along the underside grip.

Tuvok nodded. "Yes. Various attachments can be prepared to address a variety of combat situations."

"Alright, sounds good to me." Stacker turned to face the gathered UNSC infantryman. "You boys better follow their orders to the letter. I won't be hearing about any of you giving them any lip now, will I?"

"SIR NO SIR!"

"Now that that's over with, let's take a look at our weapons over here." Stacker started walking over to the table with various UNSC weapons laid out. "Do any of ya'll have experience firin' ballistic weapons?"

"Only minor experience handling them in simulations." Tuvok spoke up for the group.

Stacker nodded. "So a very basic understanding. I can work with that." He walked over and picked up an M6 pistol off the table. "This is an M6 series Personal Defense Weapon System. It chambers a 12.7 by 40mm round. A lot of the grunts call it either the galaxies biggest pistol or the smallest rifle." He picked up a magazine full of training rounds and slotted it into the pistol. "These are training rounds so don't worry too much about doing any real damage. Don't go pointing it at each other though. It'll hurt like a bitch but won't kill ya at least." Stacker pulled back on the slide to chamber a round. "There's no aim assist or anything like that so yer aim depends solely on you. The pistol is equipped with a smart link scope, so if you've got the right headgear ya can link it to yer headpiece."

The Starfleet crew watched on as Sergeant Stacker placed accurate fire downrange. When the pistol clicked empty he removed the magazine and placed them both down on the table. "Any questions so far?" He watched for any voiced questions. When none came, he continued. "Let's start ya'll off small with the M6. We'll move on to the bigger guns once you've got a good feel on handling ballistic arms."

About half an hour later and several hundred rounds of training ammo, only a few complaints about slight numbness were voiced. "The M6 doesn't have as much kick to it as I thought it would." One of the Security crew commented.

"Well, the recoil management of the M6 isn't as strong as it is in our bigger guns, but it's still there." Stacker replied to the comment. "The MA5D Individual Combat Weapon System is our mainstay assault rifle." He picked one up from the table and began pointing out the different components and functions to the Starfleet crew.

Several hours later had seen each of the Starfleet crew try their hand at a variety of weapons. Accuracy among the crew was understandably low considering that they weren't accustomed to the weapons. There were a couple exceptions though as the crew members had come from more rural areas of Earth. Their families had traditions of hunting it seemed and had kept up their skills in hologram simulations for entertainment.

**March 23, 2183. 0845 hours**

**Arcturus System**

**UNSC **_**Cover of Night**_

**Bridge**

Lt Commander Daniels sat in his command chair and sipped at his coffee as he looked over the hologram displaying the current state of the SSV _Normandy_ in its construction cradle. "Sleek design. I'll give it that. Not much in terms of overall stealth capacity compared to the _Cover of Night_. Cortana. What's your opinion on its capability?"

"Well, stealth is a subjective term here. Just hiding your heat signature and absorbing any sensor scans directed your way may work for them, but not for us. We'd still be able to detect her through motion tracking and the gravitational fluctuations given off by its eezo core." Cortana answered nonchalantly as she looked over the hologram. "She's got an oversized eezo core compared to other ships of her size. It gives her a lot of maneuverability to avoid any heavyweight fights. The _Normandy_ can defend herself, but doesn't have the tonnage to last very long in a drawn out fight. She's a stealth scout ship through and through."

"I imagine that you've already procured the schematics for further review?" Daniels asked.

"Of course. I wouldn't be much of an intelligence AI if I wasn't capable of doing that much." Cortana replied with slightly sarcastic tone. "Oh. Someone just stumbled onto the remains of that Batarian pirate base we destroyed."

"Who?"

"Looks like it was a Turian anti piracy fleet. They examined the debris fields and left the system." Cortana brought up the details that the BLACK WIDOW had sent them. "Seems like the wreckage of the Batarian ships spooked them a bit. They didn't stay very long after taking samples and documenting what they could."

"Cole protocol upheld?" Daniels blandly asked.

"Enacted after the fleet left the system. Looks like I've got something else to keep me occupied once they report in." Cortana commented. "The Systems Alliance will start flight testing the _Normandy_ within the next two months from what I'm reading on her."

"Understood. We'll return when the final stages of the _Normandy_'s construction are nearing completion. I think it's time we left this system and start laying out our observation network." Daniels ordered as he looked over the galaxy map of the Systems Alliance occupied worlds.

**AN:** A bit of a filler chapter, but it sets the stage for other events to happen further down the line. The sensor suites on the _Cover of Night, _the _Infinity, _and _Voyager_ are all more than capable of seeing through the Mass Effect universes' version of stealth. The Halo side is upgraded with reverse engineered Covenant and Forerunner systems while the Trek side has to contend with the likes of Romulan and Klingon cloaking systems. Both are more than capable of tracking a 'visible' ship through the black of space despite having its heat signature hidden.

I hope I'm not stepping on too many toes here with how I've got things depicted. Like I said in my earlier AN. I'm taking a somewhat realistic viewpoint on things here as far as I can tell. Correct me if I'm wrong as my specialty isn't in complicated physics equations.

I could've extended the cross training section a bit but didn't want to put in the effort of having Stacker describe each and every weapon on the table there.

**For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.**


	12. Chapter 12

**AN:** I didn't think that I'd have to do this but this is in response to a couple somewhat recent reviews. The crews of _Infinity_ and _Voyager_ do not have access to all the lore and information on the Mass Effect universe. A majority of nearly all of you have picked up on the fact that all the conclusions and opinions that they are coming to are pure conjecture at the moment. Yes I know about the AI's that they destroyed without giving them a chance after the Morning War was discovered. Do the crews of either ship know that yet? Hell no. That info was hidden away from the public and found by a Specter of all things who could gain access to that information. Cortana kept her snooping around on the Citadel to a minimum in order to keep herself from being discovered. And yes they would know about the genocide of the Quarians. They had Quarians to talk to in the flesh who would be doing everything they could to get them on their side.

Damn it's been raining a lot over here in California recently. It's not much compared to other states but it's a lot for out here. They don't have the capacity to properly handle this much rain water in their cities out here. I'm from the midwest so I'm used to seeing big thunderstorms that'll dump just as much rain in one day compared to what they get out here in an entire season at times. Down in the Los Angeles area people really don't know how to handle driving in the rain. They just drive the same speed and don't give themselves any more space in order to be able to safely stop and slow down. My truck isn't nearly as affected by the rain when I'm loaded down heavy but I still give myself more time and I slow down as necessary. Sitting up higher and having a more vertically oriented windshield gives me a better vantage point over traffic as well. The rain doesn't hit my windshield the same way due to how my trucks aerodynamics pushes the wind over it. But still, SLOW DOWN PEOPLE! Your life or someone else's aren't worth those few seconds you might save by going faster. I saw a coroner van at an accident scene as I went passed it recently. The entire front end of that car was just gone and scattered across the road.

Back to the story at hand. Let's see how the crews of both ships look at what the Mass Effect verse offers in terms of tech integration. For comparison, the thrust that Halo ships have is immense. Think about it this way. How much thrust would you need to get the _Pillar of Autumn_ out of atmosphere from Reach's surface? A whole fuck ton, that's what. Since the numbers for her mass, Reach's gravity, and the physics equations needed for that to happen are known, someone should be able to calculate the thrust output. Mass Effect ships had difficulty operating in an atmosphere. Frigates and smaller were the only ships that could operate in a planet's atmosphere. Any bigger than that and they just fall to the surface. So their thrust capacity is weak in comparison. _Voyager_ can fly around in a planet's atmosphere with the greatest of ease as well along with landing on the surface using her landing struts. _Voyager_ would be considered a heavy frigate or light cruiser in Mass Effect terms of size. She's considered a light exploration cruiser in the Trek verse. The _Infinity_ can already operate in a planet's atmosphere due to the set of massive repulsor engines she has and can land on and take off from the surface. That's supported in Halo 4 when the _Infinity_ lifts off after crash landing.

The _Infinity_'s slipspace speed is supported by canon if you look hard enough at all the material available. Think about how much time happened in between when _Infinity _left Requiem and the _Mantle's Approach_ appeared in the Sol system. She was already back at Earth in that amount of time. It couldn't have been more than a day or so in total time. Also when Truth headed to Earth in the Forerunner dreadnought (Keyship) it traveled at around 1900ish light years per day. That was an actual Forerunner ship run by the Covenant who didn't have a very good understanding of how to use Forerunner systems. The _Infinity_'s drive is a Forerunner drive with its own Vacuum Energy generator to power itself and run by Humans who have a better understanding of Forerunner tech. It can more than likely attain faster speeds than that if they understood the workings of slipspace better. The drive being of Forerunner design and origin is supported by canon. Dr Halsey said it was a Forerunner drive in Spartan Ops when they were having issues with the artifact that they brought aboard.

Slipspace travel speeds can get ridiculously high when you think about how fast the _Mantle's Approach_ was. It made the trip from Installation 03 to Earth in only minutes. Installation 03 is located in the Scutum-Centaurus Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. If you look at a galactic map you can see that that is a really far distance to travel in only minutes. That's thousands of light years per minute in terms of speed.

Basic Disclaimer: I do not own the properties in this work. Halo, Mass Effect, and Star Trek: Voyager belong to their respective owners. Absolutely no one has my permission to repost this story for profit. That'll just cause a whole mess of trouble for all involved.

**Chapter 12: For Science!**

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Infinity Science Center**

The civilian researchers in the _Infinity_'s science center were excited over the last month to say the least. They had been diligently going over all of the armor systems, omni tools, and weapons of the Batarian pirates with the help of some of the _Voyager_ crew. They had a fairly good grasp of how the technology worked at the moment. When Cortana sent over what she had pulled from the Systems Alliance networks, that understanding had expanded further. With the methods used to refine element zero into a useable form now available to them, they had started experimenting with it.

"The mass altering properties of element zero open up a whole new field of theoretical physics!" Dr Glassman exclaimed as he went over all the information that had been gained from the Systems Alliance. "And with our more advanced models in physics and quantum theory, we should be able to do some amazing things with it!"

"With how effective mass effect technology is in the small scale, we should be able to improve efficiency in a number of different fields." B'Elanna Torres added as she went over what fields would benefit from element zeroes properties. "I'm just surprised that the races of this galaxy didn't take their tech further than they have. It's almost like they didn't even think to improve upon any other fields besides mass effect."

Dr Glassman nodded at that. "Yeah, they didn't see the need to work on any other fields as far as I can see. Mass effect fields can do amazing things, it just tops out after a certain point when you take our understanding of physics into account."

"We came to the same conclusion. Our ships antigravity and gravity systems are both different yet perform the same task. _Voyager_'s inertial dampeners would become even more effective if we added a mass effect core to lighten the ships' mass. From our understanding, it doesn't take much energy to effectively power one." B'Elanna thought out loud. "What do you think?"

Dr Glassman pursed his lips in thought. "Well, it wouldn't do much for the _Infinity_. She's just too damn big for it to be effective. Our frigates and smaller vessels would benefit the most from adding a mass effect core. They'd be able to move around using less energy than they currently do at the moment." He took on a thoughtful look. "Yeah, let's try our hand at making a mass effect core in a small scale and see what it can do."

The next few hours had the two using the _Infinity_'s massive amount of processing power and Roland's knowledge in structural design. The designs that Cortana had taken from Systems Alliance corporations had aided in that task. They eventually came up with a relatively small device that could be installed into a pelican dropship for experimentation purposes. "Alright, looks good so far! What do you think Roland? Got a pelican we can slap this thing into for testing?" Dr Glassman asked after they had come up with a design that would work.

Roland's avatar appeared on the holotable. "I think I can work something out. Let me know once you've got the eezo core built." He looked over the design and gave an approving nod. Anything that improved their ships was a good addition in his book.

"We should be able to construct our design using our replicators with little trouble." B'Elanna offered. "We can't thank you enough for letting your Huragok engineers come aboard _Voyager_. They've improved a number of our systems in ways we hadn't thought of doing. Our replicators have improved resolution and can make more complicated molecular structures than what they were able to before while being more efficient." She added with gratitude.

Dr Glassman had a smug smile on his face. "Those guys sure are handy to have around, aren't they?"

"You're not kidding there. So many problems that we've had over the years would've become trivial if we had them aboard sooner." B'Elanna admitted.

"Well, let's get to it then. This things not going to build itself now!" Dr Glassman excitedly said as he got to work on prototyping the installation of their design into a Pelican dropship.

**Infinity Science Center**

Inside another room within the _Infinity_'s science center, experiments into other devices were happening. "These omni tools of theirs are surprisingly useful in most situations. The combination of a micro fabricator and mass effect fields makes its uses far reaching." Ensign Kim said as he looked over what they had learned from dismantling a number of the Batarian pirates omni tools for study.

Seven of Nine was assisting in the process as well. "With our knowledge in replicator technology and more efficient power production, we should be able to build far more effective omni tools of our own."

"I was thinking the same thing." Harry then brought up the recently added files that Cortana had sent them. "And with the new information that Cortana sent us, we should be able to improve things even further. The omni tools that the Batarian pirates had were really subpar and cheaply made in comparison to the designs that she sent us." He then looked over the process that they used to render common elements into omni-gel. "The way that they can render things such as commonly used building materials into omni-gel has a lot of potential uses in the field. It'd be like having a portable replicator in a sense as long as you have enough omni-gel and materials on hand."

"Affirmative." Seven of Nine stoically said as she began modifying the inner workings of an omni tool on the holotable. She kept working at her design while Ensign Kim furthered his understanding of mass effect tech. "Ensign Kim. I require your input on my design." Seven of Nine asked after an hour had passed.

Harry walked over to the station that she was working at. "Hmm… I see that you've incorporated the UNSC's superior microscopic data crystalline technology for the storage and processor components. Looks like you've also improved the micro fabricator using our knowledge concerning replicator technology. It also looks like you added a tricorder scanning array as well. The new omni tool is somewhat larger than the original, but this is only a prototype for now. I see that you've also made changes to the mass effect field generator as well." He nodded at her work. "Nicely done, Seven."

Roland's avatar appeared on the holotable next to Seven's design. "You two look like you're having fun."

Ensign Kim jumped a bit at his sudden appearance but quickly composed himself. "I'm an engineer at heart. The new avenues that mass effect opens up in terms of applications to current designs is exciting to say the least."

Roland gave a raised eyebrow and smug smile as he looked between the two. "Sure does. Are you sure that's the only reason why you're enjoying yourself at the moment?"

Harry spluttered for a moment before Seven interrupted him. "I am aware of Ensign Kim's attraction to me."

"I mean… that's to say… uh…" Harry attempted to reply before Roland spoke up.

"Relax kid. I'm just messin' with ya. Remember, I'm an advanced AI with all kinds of ways of monitoring you while you work. Of course I'm going to notice something as obvious as this." Roland eased the situation as he laughed a bit.

Ensign Kim gave an exasperated look to Roland before he calmed himself down. "This is going to be a regular thing, isn't it?"

Roland just gave a smile before his avatar winked out.

**UNSC **_**Infinity**_

**Hospital**

The Doctor and Ensign Paris stepped into the _Infinity_'s hospital. They were there for the purpose of examining and exchanging the medical knowledge of both crews. They caught the attention of the security officer at the security station near its entrance. "Ah welcome. I take it you're the _Voyager_ crewman and the AI Doctor that we're expecting today?"

"Yes, you would be correct in that assumption. Although in his case, he's only here to see what's involved with getting one of your neural laces for a pilot. He apparently really wants to fly one of your fighters." The Doctor sarcastically said near the end.

"Oh… so you're a pilot huh? You'd have to get something like that cleared with our respective Captain's and our doctors before we do something like that. But yeah, we'll look at that while you're here if you want to. Neural laces are implanted into all members of the UNSC. The one you get depends on what you'll be doing pretty much. Your average grunt will have a basic one while captains will have a more specialized one." The security officer explained while they waited for someone to take them into the hospital proper.

The doors that led into the hospital opened and a couple doctors walked out. "Greetings. I am the EMH program of the USS _Voyager_. You can just call me Doctor if that suits you." The Doctor said as he extended a hand over to the newly arrived doctors.

A cordial greeting was exchanged between the doctors as they went about introducing themselves. After they had finished, they walked back into the hospital to get started on what they had come here to do.

"This biofoam that you use, it's crude but very effective at stabilizing severe internal injuries long enough to get the injured to a proper trauma center." The Doctor commented as he looked at a canister of biofoam and examined the writing on it along with scanning it with his medical tricorder.

"Hey, the stuff works, so why change it." A nurse commented as the Doctor continued looking through all of the medicines and devices that the UNSC use.

"Yes. It would work quite well according to my scans and initial examination." The Doctor admitted. "I was told that you utilize AI doctors to quite an extent. May I ask that I be introduced to one?" He smiled in anticipation.

"One of the AI doctors? Sure, we can do that. They don't have much in terms of a bedside manner though. So don't expect much if you try to strike up a conversation." One of the doctors escorting them said. "They're highly specialized in what they're programmed to do and as such they left out conversation skills."

"Ah yes. I was much the same way for the most part during my initial activation. Although I developed and improved my social skills over time." The Doctor elaborated on his own situation.

After a short walk to get to the appropriate room to introduce the Doctor to one of the UNSC AI doctors they walked into a clean room used for surgery. "Give me a moment and I'll bring our AI doctor online." The UNSC doctor walked over and entered in a few commands into a station nearby. The ceiling opened up after that and a series of robotic arms tipped with all sorts of medical instruments lowered themselves into the room over a table.

Roland's avatar appeared on a holo pedestal next to the table. "Generally, these guys don't converse much as they aren't programmed for that. If you want, I can help introduce you in the digital sense. Is your mobile emitter capable of a wireless transfer?"

The Doctor looked to the avatar of Roland displayed on the holo pedestal. "Yes. It is capable of a wireless transfer."

"Great! I've already pinged it for now. Just bring it over here and I'll handle the rest." Roland said as he gestured to the top of the holo pedestal.

Ensign Paris looked a little out of place during their entire visit so far, but turned to the Doctor. "Mr Paris. If you would, please." The Doctor gestured to his mobile emitter. Tom took hold of his mobile emitter as the Doctor's hologram faded away.

"So I just put it on top of the holo pedestal?"

"Yup. Right here is fine." Roland said as he pointed to his feet.

A few seconds after Tom placed the mobile emitter on the holo pedestal the Doctor's holographic form appeared on the pedestal next to Roland's avatar. "Good to meet you. Name's Roland."

The Doctor's avatar looked around himself for a moment before he noticed that he was standing next to Roland. "Oh, my apologies. This is my first time using a system as vast as yours. Please, call me Doctor." They shook hands.

"Ah no worries. First time for everything you know." Roland waved off the Doctor's disorientation with ease. "Do you mind if I take your mobile emitter out for a short spin?"

The Doctor thought about it for a moment. "I don't mind. Just be careful. It's my home after all."

"Really?! Awesome! Lets see… how to do this. I'll just upload a fragment of myself for the time being since I'm still needed as _Infinity_'s shipboard AI." Roland crouched over the mobile emitter as he worked on how to do what he needed to do. "Alright! Got a part of me uploaded. Ensign Paris? Would you mind giving me a hand?"

"Go ahead, Mr Paris." The Doctor urged on.

"Alright… if things go pear shaped I'm blaming this on you." Tom voiced his concerns with a hint of caution as he picked up the mobile emitter and held it over to his side.

A life size and human looking version of Roland's avatar rapidly took shape in the next moment. Roland blinked a couple times before he looked around the room and then down to his hands. The expression on his face slowly shifted to awe and excitement with each passing second. "Oh ho ho ho ho… this is AWESOME!" Roland exclaimed as he made a slight jump and a pump of his fist in the air.

"Well if you like that so far, I would suggest that you try touching something. As a purely digital existence I would imagine that you've never truly experienced tactile sensation." The Doctor recommended from the holo pedestal.

"Oh! Good idea!" Roland then went around the room touching different things one after the other. "This is so cool!" He honestly sounded like a kid that had gotten the chance to play with something that he had always been denied the opportunity to touch.

"While I'm having fun over there, let's take care of what you came here for." Roland's avatar on the holo pedestal said to the Doctor's hologram next to him with clear amusement in his tone.

"Yes, let's." The Doctor cheerily agreed.

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

The time had finally come to test the prototype slipspace drive that the crew of _Voyager_ had installed. "_Captain Janeway? I've finished final checks on all software systems and the AI that'll be managing the slipspace calculations. Everything looks good on our end from the Infinity_." Roland's voice came through the comms as he ran his last checks on the newly installed slipspace systems on _Voyager_.

Ensign Kim was busy going over his own final system checks as well. "All systems functioning optimally." He looked up from his station. "We're clear to run our first tests, Captain."

"Roland. Are we clear to launch?" Captain Janeway asked the UNSC AI.

"_You've got the green light. We're ready to release the docking clamps on your mark._"

"Mr Paris?"

"Ready when you are, Captain." Ensign Paris replied.

"Roland. Release the clamps." Captain Janeway said as a slight shudder went through the ship. "Mr Paris. Take us out."

"Aye Captain."

The Federation Starship USS _Voyager_ slowly made her way out of the _Infinity_'s sub vessel bay and out into the vacuum of space once more. During its time within the supercarrier, her crew had marvelled at the sheer speed and methodical single mindedness of the Huragok that had come aboard. The Huragok had been ecstatic at getting the chance to look over nearly every square inch of the Starfleet vessel while it had been in the confines of the sub vessel bays. The engineering crew of _Voyager_ had been especially happy at their addition to the small ship. The Huragok had found and fixed so many flaws and stressed systems that _Voyager_ felt like a new ship again.

Ensign Paris ran a hand over his station as he took in the difference in how _Voyager_ now felt to him. She had always been responsive to his ministrations, but now _Voyager_ felt even better than it ever had before. "That's it… purr for me." Tom muttered under his breath.

"Move us into position for the test." Captain Janeway ordered.

"Aye Captain."

_Voyager _then moved out to a safe distance away from the _Infinity_. "Mr Kim. Are we ready to start the test?"

"Slipspace capacitors at ninety percent and climbing. We'll be ready to open a rift in fifteen seconds, Captain." Ensign Kim answered as he looked over his station.

Captain Janeway nodded in acknowledgement. "Captain Lasky. Wish us luck in our test." She said with anticipation in her voice over the channel to _Infinity_.

"_Good luck, Captain. We'll be monitoring everything we can on our end._"

"Slipspace capacitors charged. We're ready to open the rift." Ensign Kim called out after the system had finished charging.

"Begin the test."

A swirling black portal lined with blue white light opened up out in front of _Voyager_. The slipspace rift stayed open as sensors scanned for any discrepancies and anomalies that could have occurred. "All readings stable, Captain." Ensign Kim called out from his station.

"So good so far." Chakotay commented from his seat.

"Roland? How are things looking from your end?" Captain Janeway asked over the comm.

"_Looks like a clean opening to me. Are you ready to make a short jump?_"

"Once we've closed the rift and confirmed our drives' capacity to reliably open and close them, we will." Captain Janeway answered back.

"_Understood, Captain Janeway. If you need anything, you need only ask._" Captain Lasky said as he offered his ships support.

"Acknowledged. Mr Kim, close the rift."

**December 15th, 2557. 1533 hours**

**UNSC **_**Song of the East**_

**Autumn Class Heavy Cruiser**

**Bridge**

The bridge crew, and all other crew on the Autumn Class Heavy Cruiser for that matter, were picking themselves up from the floor. The Captain reached a hand up to the side of his head where he could feel a throbbing pain. He pulled his hand away and saw that it was slick with fresh blood. 'I'll worry about that later. My crew is more important at the moment.' He thought as he looked around his bridge. "Report!" Captain Broddrick called out as he stood on unsteady feet.

One of the bridge crew finally managed to get a station working. "We've dropped out of slipspace! All systems currently offline and running through a hard reset!"

"Comms! Did the rest of the battlegroup drop out with us?" Captain Broddrick ordered his comms officer as he got back into his seat.

The communications officer busied himself at his station as he scanned for the signals of the other ships of the battlegroup. It took at least thirty seconds of working through his stations erratic behavior before the battlegroups pings appeared on his screen. "Sir! The _Infinity_ isn't responding! All other ships have reported! Numerous minor injuries and damage reported across the battlegroup!"

"What do you mean the _Infinity_ isn't responding?" The Captain asked as his cognitive state improved.

"Either the _Infinity_ can't respond, or she isn't here."

Captain Broddrick didn't like what was happening. Not one bit. They had received an emergency warning from Roland right before his ship and presumably the rest of the battlegroup had hit an unknown slipspace anomaly. "Are sensors back up yet?!"

"Basic sensors only, sir!"

"Good enough. Do we know where we are?"

"Deep space. We're not within range of any star systems. We're along our projected path back to the Sol system at the least." The sensor officer answered back after he looked over the readings of what few sensors were currently active. "Sir! The _Infinity_ isn't within range! All other ships present and accounted for!"

"Once sensors are back up I want you scanning for the _Infinity_. After we've confirmed the _Infinity_'s status we'll scan for whatever the hell hit us in slipspace." Captain Broddrick ordered. "Comms! When communications are back up, I want a line to HIGHCOM."

**AN:** I wanted to get this out last week but I had a run in with what's called lots of work. Man I'm worn out after this last weekend. Haven't driven that much several days in a row for a while now. Bit of a shorter chapter but I'm working on building things up in a believable manner as best as I can rather than just saying 'They did this and this and this' with no explanation whatsoever. I'll do my best to try and get things moving in the next chapter. No promises on when I'll upload though since work for me can be pretty unpredictable.

MERRY CHRISTMAS folks! I'll be working tomorrow but I won't be driving very much thankfully. Gonna be stuck on some Wal-Mart loads running around in Wisconsin for the next week until they can get me back out to the west coast. I run western regional as my usual territory normally.

**For now, I ride my 18 wheeled Stallion.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Edit AN:** This is the second time I'm making this edit. The first time I did so was on the FF site itself. I'm not doing that again as the site experienced some kind of weird error when I went to save the edited chapter and deleted all the work I put into making these edits. Made some edits to the authors notes at the beginning and some of the dialog within the story. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same.

First off. I'm not a professional writer or even consider myself one. This is just a hobby folks. I _can_ and _will_ make mistakes. All I ask is that you point them out to me and I can and will fix things as necessary. As long as what you point out is done critically and intelligently I will do what I can to fix the issues at hand. This is all done by me. No beta readers.

**AN:** BOOM! We've crossed the 100k+ views and 1k+ followers mark folks! Man I'm still surprised at how much you all seem to like this story. There's a few of you who've been around since this started that know that my original plan for this story was much different. Now that I look back on that original idea, I see that it wouldn't have been as popular or interesting compared to what I'm doing now. But, hey, I appreciate all the attention and reviews that you've all submitted thus far. My hopes for this story is for it to progress into the several hundred thousand words mark. Oh and I have been reading 'On the Illusion of Might' by evevee since something like mid 2018. That's concerning Cooldude's review.

Those Wal-Mart loads they had me running gave me no time to myself after the end of the day usually. Sure there weren't many miles to drive with those loads, but they were just time consuming with what running those loads entailed. Ah well, I was getting paid for it so it wasn't that hard to get used to. Now I'm stuck dealing with the aftermath of those winter storms running across the northern midwest at the moment. 70+ mph wind gusts and such right now. Yeah, I'm staying right where I'm at. I'm too lightly loaded to be able to handle wind that strong. Thankfully I survived what winter weather in Wyoming and South Dakota can dish out and I'm back to running in the western region once again.

Ugh I've been doing loads lately that gave me very little time to myself afterwards. Just drive, rest, and sleep at the end of the day. Had no energy to sit down and work on this.

The kilowatt range laser thing for the Anlace class frigate pulse lasers comes from the Halo wiki concerning Covenant pulse lasers. They didn't give any definitive numbers on that front. They're probably in the really high kilowatt to almost the megawatt range in reality. Not real sure but I'm just going by what's in the wiki. Star Trek ship mounted phasers? That's some really ridiculously high number. Most people don't know this but _Voyager_ would be able to glass a planets' surface a whole hell of a lot faster than an entire Covenant fleet could. As in within a days time or so by itself. That's mainly due to how phasers work in general. Those nadion particles can do some pretty crazy things when on a shipboard scale. Just widen the beam and it'll clear whole swathes of land really damn fast.

For any Captain's logs on the Star Trek side I'm just going to have them use the local timeline. I looked up what I could on the whole stardate thing used in the shows and found out that it's just not really useful for an accurate date. It was a made up system for the show that you couldn't use to find out the exact date.

Star Trek replicators are pretty broken if you ask me. They only need energy in order to make just about anything that you could need. It's a whole hell of a lot of energy though so that's the main balancing factor with them. They can even be used for recycling of old devices or useless matter. So as long as you can throw things into them so they can convert it into energy they can make what you want essentially. The writers of Star Trek hated them because they made a lot of things too easy in their eyes. Replication technology would break the entire economic structure of the Mass Effect and Halo universes if they aren't introduced properly. I can't remember where I read it or watched it in a video but during the Dominion war in Star Trek it would only take something like 15 industrial replicators on a large scale to rapidly build the hull and superstructure of starfleet ships. Not sure how long it took in general since all I'm finding are very conflicting build times. What couldn't be made by the replicators was built using conventional means and installed during the building process.

**Edit AN:** Replicators have one major limitation. They are not capable of making everything possible. They are limited by the quantum molecular structure of what they are making. If it's too complicated, they can't make it. It's as simple as that most of the time.

The weapons of Mass Effect 1 were pretty weak compared to the rest of the series. Mainly due to a very long period of peacetime resulting in them being scaled down for simple peacekeeping operations. The sand grain sized bits of metal do not have enough surface area or mass to be able to effectively impart their potential energy into their targets when in their stock state (no weapon mods). They would be prone to overpenetrating their targets for the most part without the addition of weapon mods to counteract that aspect of them. The hardsuits were designed the way that they were in order to stop the penetration and absorb the heat of vaporization of the rounds against the armor. Hence why they're made of ceramics and lighter composite materials instead of heavier metals. They don't have to contend with stopping a more massive round that can punch large holes in things and cause massive amounts of internal damage.

**Edit AN: **Adding weapon mods in Mass Effect changes the way the weapon functions and have their own drawbacks. Such as increased heat production, increased recoil, higher power drain, reduced potential projectile speed, and other things of the like. Unless the weapon is designed with these mods in mind and built to specifically handle these changes, they'll have potentially significant impacts on the weapons performance in general. You can't just slap a mod onto a gun that isn't really designed to operate in that manner and expect it to have no negative impacts on its performance at all. Nothing ever magically just works in real life. Cause and effect folks.

**Edit AN:** Now then, when characters in the story make their opinions known it is their opinion based on their viewpoints. Mass Effect ships do use spaced armor and other such methods of armoring their ships. I have read that before when looking up what I could on them. They pretty much use just about any and all methods possible to reduce the overall mass of their ships. More mass equals more cost in terms of element zero needed for their eezo cores. So in turn their superstructures are not nearly as robust as what is found in Halo humanity ships. They're strong enough, but not so strong as to be able to take massive amounts of abuse before finally buckling. Mass Effect ships tend towards composite materials and less towards heavier metals and thick plates of armor. They depend more on their kinetic barriers to protect their ships than on heavy armor plates.

If you want a modern day comparison for bullet size and speed look at what a 9mm bullet fired from a pistol does to a clay block compared to a 45 from a 1911 colt. The 9mm goes completely through the clay block with a faster muzzle velocity and still does some damage. But the 45, which travels slower, comes to a complete stop within the block and imparts all of its energy into the same block and rips it apart.

Everyone wants to compare halo weapons with modern arms. The simple truth is this. They've got 500 more years of refinement and development behind them. The metallurgy is more advanced, propellants are more advanced, and even the ballistics of the bullet travel is more advanced. With the UNSC's propensity to lace things with tungsten I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same thing to their armor piercing rounds for certain weapons. In Halo 2 you were able to use a gas operated weapon in a vacuum for crying out loud. The same with Halo: Reach when you were on top of the SDV Heavy Corvette. That's not even taking into consideration that they're firing an air cooled weapon in a vacuum. Wouldn't take long to overheat them in that environment. The propellant is more than likely some kind of solid rocket fuel styled charge of sorts which burns more effeciently and effectively (propellant mixed with an oxidizer). The M7 smg is stated as using caseless ammo with the propellant wrapped around the base of the round and triggered by an electric charge. They are not modern arms folks. The bullets have higher muzzle velocities and higher density as well. They punch a whole hell of a lot harder than what we've got today.

Basic Disclaimer: I do not own the properties in this work. Mass Effect, Halo, and Star Trek: Voyager belong to their respective owners. Absolutely no one has my permission to repost this for profit. Seriously, don't do it. I'd rather not have lawyers coming for my ass because of some greedy moron.

**Chapter 12: Tentative First Steps. What do we have here?**

**April 10th, 2183**

**USS **_**Voyager**_

**Bridge**

After successfully testing the new slipspace systems installed into their ship, the crew of _Voyager_ were eager to start exploring the uncharted sectors of the new galaxy they were now in. That enthusiasm, however, started to shift to concern after they had scanned the planet they were orbiting. "One is troubling, two a coincidence, three is a pattern." Chakotay voiced his thoughts after _Voyager_'s initial scans came through.

"I agree. Continue scans of the planet. Inform me if we find anything significant." Captain Janeway ordered. "Chakotay. Join me in my ready room so we can inform Captain Lasky of our findings."

In the next minute they were both situated in the Captain's ready room as they contacted the UNSC _Infinity_. The screen on the wall lit up with Captain Lasky's image after a connection had been established. "_Captain Janeway. Good to see that your slipspace systems are working as intended. Did you find something?_"

"That we have. And what we've found is troubling." Captain Janeway answered as she brought up _Voyager_'s recent findings. "This is the third system we've scanned and found to have had intelligent activity in its past. We've found that these planets had their surfaces scoured of any such activity, and each instance of the event has been in approximately fifty thousand year increments. The oldest was four hundred and fifty thousand years ago according to our scans and had multiple instances of the event occurring."

"_Fifty thousand year increments…_" Captain Lasky trailed off as he looked down and rubbed his chin in thought. "_What else have your scans shown you?_"

Captain Janeway manipulated the data being shown. "Entire sections of the previous planets showed signs of having their surfaces cleansed of any signs of intelligent activity. Normally it would be hard to detect the signs of such an action, but whoever did this counted on time and erosion to do most of the work. Their work was sloppy at times, as we were able to detect unnatural objects buried under the passage of time."

"_What kinds of unnatural objects?_"

"Mostly degraded examples of these civilizations technology and remnants of structures. Nothing intact enough to gather any meaningful information from unfortunately." Captain Janeway said as she sighed. "Something is definitely happening on a recurring cycle of sorts. It may take us finding an intact data repository for us to be able to learn what we need to know about what's happening." She then took notice of something on the holotable behind Captain Lasky on the screen. "What has the _Infinity_ been doing since we've been gone?"

Captain Lasky stood to the side before he spoke. "_We're in the process of building an appropriate construction cradle and other necessary processing facilities. Your matter/energy conversion technology is amazing to say the least. The asteroid belt of the planet we're orbiting has plenty of matter available for conversion into energy to be used for the construction process. It's slow going since we're having to build the facility piece by piece in the deployment bays, but it's coming together quite nicely._"

"Good to hear. If we find anything else during our exploration we'll inform you. _Voyager_, out." Captain Janeway sighed after the screen cut off. "Well, Chakotay. What do you think? Why is a cycle of supposed extermination happening in this galaxy?"

Chakotay shook his head and sighed as he thought on that subject. "Honestly… I've got no clue Captain. Either an ancient race wants to keep their place at the top of the food chain and kills off their competition when they become advanced enough, or some other unknown reason. There's really no point in trying to wrap our heads around this until we know more about the situation."

Captain Janeway dipped her head. "The Mantle of Responsibility…" She muttered as she trailed off in thought.

"This galaxy is our test…" Chakotay added. "We should be expecting to have some major fights on our hands if things keep moving in the direction they seem to be."

"That's something that I'd like to avoid if at all possible. We're not a warship. My crew isn't trained to handle all out war if it comes down to that." Captain Janeway admitted.

"Well… depending on how things progress, we may not have to, Captain. If we help this galaxy's people to advance and grow out of the technological stagnation they seem to be stuck in, they could shoulder the brunt of the effort themselves." Chakotay suggested his opinion.

Captain Janeway held a hand to her chin as she nodded at that. "If that's the case, then we'll need to provide concrete proof of this 'cycle' we think is happening. Otherwise, they'll just try to capture our tech for themselves and squander their chances of surviving the coming cycle."

"Agreed. If it comes down to warfare, then the UNSC would be the better choice as they're more accustomed and experienced in that area. They'll need a more solid advantage in that aspect if they're going to be prepared for whatever is causing this cycle. I'd rather they be more than ready to handle this unknown party than be underprepared for it." Chakotay expanded on his own thoughts.

They looked at each other for several seconds as they both came to terms with that statement. Nodding, they silently agreed.

**April 20th, 2183. 1130 hours**

**UNSC**_**Cover of Night**_

**Bridge**

After dropping BLACK WIDOW spy satellites in systems with key Mass Relays in them, the _Cover of Night_ continued on with its mission to set up a listening network within the Systems Alliances territory. Currently they were within a system near the edges of the Skyllian Verge as the inhabitants of this galaxy called it. "As new as the Systems Alliance is to the larger galactic community, they're doing surprisingly well. I'd say that they're roughly a century behind the other races in terms of technology." Cortana mused out loud as she looked over the information that their investigation had gleaned so far from the Systems Alliance.

"Hmm…" Daniels hummed at that. "They have a mostly even playing field concerning the technology of this galaxy. Element Zero reduces the energy requirements of nearly every technology it touches, but it has its limitations nonetheless."

"Despite the fact that they use a higher energy producing form of fusion, our fusion technology is more advanced and far more powerful." Cortana said as she idly monitored the communication relays of the system they were in. "Their systems aren't nearly as energy hungry as our own in retrospect. Our Strident frigates can charge up their MAC's to full capacity in just over a minute. It would take the fusion reactors of this galaxy far longer to do the same with our MAC systems. Even then, the recoil from firing the MAC would utterly destroy the superstructures of their own ships."

"Agreed. Their ships do seem a bit flimsy in terms of overall superstructure construction methodology compared to ours." Daniels replied.

Cortana stopped as she brought up a specific transmission that she had just intercepted. "That's odd. This transmission is using a highly encrypted format compared to everything else running through this systems' comm network." She looked at the encryption used for several seconds as scenarios ran through her processing matrix. "It's not something used by the Systems Alliance as far as I can see so far. It was sent as a single burst transmission that bounced around the network before making its way out of the system and away from the comm network."

"Have you cracked the encryption yet?" Daniels asked as his own thoughts ran through his mind.

"Not just yet, I'm close though." Cortana answered as she worked at breaking the encryption. "Got it. Well, would you look at that. I'd say that this has to be borderline military grade encryption. It's suspiciously similar to Batarian coding language."

"Contents of the transmission?" Daniels ordered.

Cortana gained a thoughtful expression for a moment before she responded. "Looks to me like it's a list of what resources this system of mining outposts has along with the projected patrol patterns of Systems Alliance ships near this system." Her expression shifted to annoyance as she further investigated the origin of the signal. "Looks like there's a greedy rat living in one of the mining stations. Not much else to say than that as it would take too long to search the greater extranet for any more info on the man."

Daniels tilted his head in thought. He then looked Cortana's avatar in the eyes. "Potential pirate raid." Daniels stated as he came to his conclusion.

"That's what I think. So… wait and see?" Cortana asked with a frustrated expression on her face as this was a human mining outpost.

"No." Daniels flatly said. "Investigate the transmission and find its destination."

Cortana nodded at that. "Aye, sir. That's something that I can definitely do."

It took Cortana all of thirty seconds to backtrace the signal to its origin point and find its final destination. "Found the signals destination point." Cortana then pointed to a spot outside of the system map on the holotable. "According to a sensor scan I just ran in that area there's a single ship sitting out there on its own just outside of this systems scanning range. It's running on minimal power with most of its systems powered down for the time being. It'll be several hours before the signal reaches the ship since it's traveling at light speed only."

Daniels looked at the holotable as he came to his conclusion. "Information courier. Plot a course to get us closer for an inspection."

After the _Cover of Night_ placed itself into a sensor dead zone nearby within the system they dumped all of their excess heat. The Sahara Class Heavy Prowler then made a short jump over towards the general area that the mystery ship was occupying. "Cortana. What can our sensors tell us about that ship?"

"Ugly… that's for sure." Cortana bluntly commented. "Just a modular set of blocks with engines pretty much. I would guess that it's a light freighter of some kind."

Daniels nodded. "Cheap and expendable. Good. Should be easy to place a beacon on the ship and track it. Wake Blue Team, they've got a mission."

**One hour later**

Kelly watched as the blocky modular shape of her target slowly got larger in her field of vision. She was currently making a short EVA maneuver with an active camouflage module in order to attach the tracking beacon. The rest of Blue Team were aboard their stealth pelican nearby. "We think that once they receive the data packet this ship will leave the system. Depending on where they lead us to your mission parameters could be vastly different." Cortana explained as Blue Team watched Kelly close on her target from the troop bay of their pelican.

As Kelly approached, she noted to herself that the ships construction looked very flimsy. 'One C12 charge placed in the right spot could turn this ship into a pinata.' She could see a loose and poorly maintained panel near one of the ships modular connection points. 'This should do nicely.' She gently pried the panel open in order to place the tracking beacon in a suitable location. Once that was done, she slowly bent the panel back into its original position in order to hide her work. Flashing a series of green lights in her hud back to her team, she signaled the completion of her task. She lightly pushed off from the surface of the light freighter in order to propel herself back to their pelican.

"Now all we have to do is wait. The signal should be getting here within the hour. Plenty of time to get ready for the next part." Cortana casually said.

The light freighter didn't disappoint as it slowly started powering up its systems in that amount of time. It oriented itself out towards an uninhabited system nearby before flashing away into this galaxy's version of FTL.

After returning to the _Cover of Night_ Blue Team stood at attention on the bridge awaiting orders. "According to that ships exit vector, they should be heading towards this system." Cortana said as she pointed to a star map of the local area. "It's going to take them a few days to reach their destination. So that gives us plenty of time to prepare."

"Cortana. Plot a course to their projected destination." Daniels ordered.

"Estimated time of our arrival is two hours time."

Daniels nodded. "Blue Team. Dismissed." Blue Team saluted as they headed to the armory to prepare for the mission ahead and strategize.

**UNSC **_**Cover of Night**_

**Armory**

Blue Team stood over the holotable that was situated at one side of the armory. Cortana's avatar stood with her hands on her hips in a casual stance as she observed them. "So… thoughts on the Citadel Council so far?"

John looked over to her before he turned back to the rest of his team. "They've gone soft. Too much peacetime and not enough action against terrorists and pirate factions."

"Yeah. I thought so too. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that civil war hasn't broken out closer to the lawless sectors of this galaxy. The fact that it hasn't happened is largely due to the deterrent that is the Turian Hierarchy fleets." Cortana stated her opinion of the situation.

"Have you been able to gather any intel on Systems Alliance military doctrine?" Fred asked as he added to the conversation.

Cortana snapped her fingers as she brought up files pertaining to Systems Alliance training methods. "All of their soldiers are given gene mods. Nothing drastic, but enough to get them up to the peak of human fitness and help keep them there after basic training has finished."

"How do they stack up in your opinion?" Kelly queried.

Cortana shrugged as she displayed a video file and played it for Blue Team. "See for yourselves." The video was a simple recruitment advertisement showing the kinds of training to be expected. "Discipline, as you can expect, is lacking compared to ours."

Blue Team watched the video file play. "Lots of flash. No real substance." John commented.

"I did manage to get my hands on some unclassified footage of actual engagements." Cortana said as she started playing another video file. This one was of local defenders warding off a pirate raid on a colony in the Skyllian Verge.

"Overly dependent on their shields." Linda spoke up as she stated her observation.

"Tech and gear can fail. The best way to not get injured is to not get hit." John stated.

"Their shields are only effective at blocking high speed projectiles. It offers no protection against hand to hand combat or heat based attacks. They would've been useless against Covenant plasma weapons." Cortana explained the main weakness of kinetic barriers. "We'll be arriving at our destination soon. Let's head back to the bridge."

**Bridge**

The _Cover of Night_ arrived at their destination shortly after Blue Team entered the bridge. "Sensors. What does this system have to offer?" Daniels ordered his bridge crew.

After thirty seconds of running a scan of the system, his sensor officer answered. "Looks like there's a supply base of some kind on a small moon orbiting the sole gas giant of this system, sir."

"Show me."

The holotable had an image of the moon in question zoom in on one area of its surface. The base was comprised of several prefabricated structures and a large landing pad near a warehouse. A series of antennas dotted the roof of one of the structures with a much larger antenna next to it.

Daniels looked over the image as Cortana made her opinion known. "Looks like a staging area and storage for any stolen goods."

"Bring us closer to the base for intel acquisition operations." Daniels ordered as he looked over to Blue Team. "Prep for stealth recon."

Blue Team saluted as they headed back to the armory to prep for their mission.

"Continue scans of the system." Daniels ordered his crew as Blue Team left the bridge. "Once we've confirmed that our operation will not be interrupted we'll make a short jump over to the far side of that moon."

Several hours later had the _Cover of Night_ exiting slipspace on the far side of the moon from the bases' location. After the ship had orbited the moon and maintained position over the location of the base, Blue Team deployed in their stealth pelican.

**April 21st, 2183. 0100 hours**

**Outskirts of Skyllian Verge**

**Unnamed moon**

Conveniently for Blue Team, a small range of hills overlooked the base. Cortana had found the perfect spot to set the pelican down and John was currently following the waypoint that she had set for their LZ. A light smattering of dust was kicked up as the pelican set down. Luckily this moon didn't have a very thick covering of regolith and zero atmosphere to deal with as it settled back down to the surface quickly. They all had active camouflage units equipped for the operation.

"Let's get to work, shall we?" Cortana said with a smile as John reached for her AI chip.

After inserting her chip, John turned to his team. "Blue Team, fall out."

Blue Team exited the pelican to the darkness of the shadow of the gas giant this moon orbited. They carefully made their way to the ridge of the low hill that overlooked their target. Linda used her advanced optics to scan the small compound in front of them. Cortana tapped into her MJOLNIR's systems and was relieved and disappointed at what she saw. "Well, they're awfully full of themselves. I'm not seeing any perimeter security systems at all. They've got scanners to detect any incoming ships but the base itself is basically open."

"Landing pad shows little use." Linda spoke as she continued looking over the compound.

"Yeah, little to no foot traffic in the regolith shows that this base must've been set up recently." Cortana pointed out. "This whole base looks like it could be picked up and moved at a moment's notice with the right ship."

"Can you infiltrate their systems from here?" Fred asked.

"I'd rather not risk it. They've got some good antennas for signal reception and that could set off an alarm." Cortana answered as she weighed her options. "My suggestion is to get up close for a manual insertion."

"Linda, overwatch. Fred, Kelly, with me." John ordered as Linda settled into position. "Cortana. Do you see any points of insertion from here?"

"There." Cortana said as she highlighted a junction box on the outside of the communication building. "That should house a hardline that I can use."

The very low gravity of the moon meant that the three members of Blue Team were literally gliding over the surface with little to no indication of their passing other than a slight shimmer as their boots touched the ground. It didn't take long for them to cross the two kilometer distance that separated them from the base. Upon reaching the junction box, John pulled out a small set of tools and removed the panel.

"That should work." Cortana said as she highlighted an open port in the terminal. After placing her chip into the slot, she went to work. John, Fred, and Kelly kept a watchful eye on their surroundings as Cortana gathered all the intel she could. After several minutes of waiting, Cortana's AI chip lit back up. John retrieved her chip and inserted it back into his helmet.

"Well, they're expecting a shipment of supplies within the next few hours. Other than that, we don't have much to worry about here." Cortana relayed the immediately important information that she had stolen. "It's a staging area, just like we thought."

"What's our next objective?" John asked as he processed her statement.

"Let's return to the pelican and set up for observation. I've gotten all I can from the systems in this base for now." Cortana answered as John replaced the junction box cover.

"Understood. Blue Team, move out."

After returning to the pelican just as quietly, Blue Team set up a series of sensors on the ridge in order to capture any and all images that they could of the base and incoming ship. Cortana sent a tight beam laser transmission up to the _Cover of Night_ informing them of what she had found out. No reply was sent back in order to keep their presence hidden from the bases' occupants.

**UNSC **_**Cover of Night**_

**Bridge**

"Sir. We've just received a tight beam transmission from the surface." The communications officer reported.

Lt Commander Daniels stood from his seat and walked over to the holotable. He then brought up the communique in question. Quickly looking over the details, he called out orders. "Sensors. Watch for an incoming ship to this system other than the one we know is headed this way."

"Aye sir." The sensor officer calmly answered.

**With Blue Team**

"The _Cover of Night_ should be watching for the incoming ship so they can calculate their entrance vector. Now we just have to wait for them to arrive and see what they're bringing." Cortana explained after she sent her transmission.

John and the rest of Blue Team nodded as they sat down and started reviewing what had been learned along with reading more of what the Codex had to offer.

Several hours later, the passive sensors of their pelican detected an incoming ship coming towards the base. The ship was around the same size as the _Cover of Night_, making it frigate sized for this galaxy's standards. It was armed and seemed poorly maintained overall. Its design leaned more towards troop transport or cargo hauling than combat. After setting down onto the landing pad, a ramp opened up on its underside. The sensors that Blue Team had set up didn't have the angle to see into the open bay but were still able to watch them start unloading large crates. Various species were among the individuals that stepped out to unload the ship.

"What do we have here?" Cortana said as they all watched intently. "Hahne-Kedar, Aldrin Labs, and other assorted crates… those first two are Systems Alliance manufacturers. Either they're gathering up their recent hauls…"

"Or they're gearing up for a raid." John finished.

One of the turians that walked out of the base to assist opened up one of the crates and confirmed their suspicions. He now held up a couple weapons in their folded up state and nodded appreciatively before putting them back into the crate.

"Definitely a raid. They wouldn't bother with bringing all this hardware here if they were planning on selling it. They'd just take it where they needed to." The AI spoke her opinion. "Those are stolen Systems Alliance goods. My suggestion is to let them handle this. And I've got the perfect Admiral to let in on the little secret we've come across."

After watching the crew of the ship finish unloading their cargo and taking off from the base, Blue Team gathered up their sensor gear and took off back to the _Cover of Night_.

**April 21st, 2183. 1805 hours**

**Arcturus Station**

**Office of Admiral Steven Hackett**

Admiral Hackett was currently finishing several reports for the day. He was about to shut down his station when he received an alert that an important message had arrived. It had come in on an official Systems Alliance encrypted channel and was labeled as top secret. Quickly entering in his passcode, he started looking over the files in question. Detailed topographical maps, still images, video files, ship names, and even system locations and ship exit and entrance vectors were included in the message. The only problem with this message though, was the fact that the sender wasn't identified. He got to the end of the message and came to his conclusion. Either someone had cracked Systems Alliance encryption protocols, or this was an Alliance Intelligence Services agent trying to keep their cover from being blown while on an undercover op. "Why would they contact me instead of their handlers?" He mused to himself.

Admiral Hackett tapped his intercom for his secretary. "Get the AIS on the line."

**AN: **I'm not too proud of this chapter in my opinion. The fact that it took so long is a sore spot in my eyes. Just got stuck at a certain point and couldn't think. Things will start ramping up soon as both crews start looking deeper into the happenings in this universe. I wanted to expand on the _Voyager_ section but didn't really see a need to at the moment. They'll get their own chapter all to themselves soon though so don't give up hope.

**Edit AN:** _Voyager_'s crew are experienced when it comes to combat. They're just not as experienced and brutal as you'd see among Halo humanity training and combat methods. They can fight pretty well, they just lack the combat instincts that develop during constant life and death struggles. Starfleet lost badly to the Jem'Hadar when they first encountered them.

Hopefully this updated chapter containing my greater thought processes fixes some of the confusion that's happening.

**For now, I ride my 18 wheeled stallion.**


End file.
